The Syrian military announced it would suspend all military operations inside Aleppo’s Sheikh Maksoud district starting 3:00 pm local time (1200 GMT) on Saturday, and expel PKK/YPG terrorists to the city of Taqba, state news agency SANA reported.
In statements carried by the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA), the Operations Command said: "We announce the halt of all military operations inside the Sheikh Maksoud neighborhood in Aleppo starting at 3:00 pm (1200GMT)."
It added that "YPG militants entrenched inside Yassin Hospital will be transferred toward the city of Tabqah, with their weapons withdrawn."
The command further said that "the army will begin handing over all health and government facilities to state institutions and will gradually withdraw from the streets of the Sheikh Maksoud neighborhood."
Syrian security forces began deploying in Sheikh Maksoud after days of intense clashes with the U.S.-backed PKK/YPG terrorists that killed and wounded dozens.
SANA reported that two PKK/YPG terrorists blew themselves up in the middle of security forces without inflicting casualties as gunfire was still heard in the neighborhood around noon Saturday.
Since the early hours, Syrian security forces were sweeping the neighborhood after calling on residents to stay home for their own safety.
Hundreds of people who fled the neighborhood days earlier were waiting at Sheikh Maksoud's entrances to be allowed in once the military operations are over.
Clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish northern neighborhoods of Sheikh Maksoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid, after the PKK/YPG failed to make progress on how to merge their forces into the national army per a March 10, 2025, deal. The YPG’s insistence on maintaining its self-styled autonomy in Syria’s northeast has held back the deal’s implementation.
Security forces have since captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The five days of fighting killed at least 22 people. Government officials reported at least 10 civilians were killed in the surrounding government-controlled areas.
The fighting also displaced more than 140,000 people.
Syria's Information Minister Hamza al-Mustafa told state TV that PKK/YPG terrorists used civilian buildings including hospitals and clinics during the fighting.
State TV reported that at least one security member was wounded when a drone fired by the PKK/YPG struck the neighborhood.
Associated Press journalists said bursts of gunfire could be heard as government-deployed drones flew over Sheikh Maksoud.
The Syrian military declared the neighborhood a "closed military zone" since Friday night as it launched a "clearing operation."
In Jordan, state media reported that Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi discussed the developments in Syria with U.S. Special Envoy to Syria Tom Barrack in Amman. Jordan offered support to efforts aimed at consolidating the ceasefire and the peaceful withdrawal of PKK/YPG from Aleppo, media reported.
The YPG is the Syrian offshoot of the PKK terrorist group, which has waged a bloody campaign in Türkiye for over four decades. The YPG occupies swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast and acts as the main ally of the U.S. under the pretext of fighting Daesh terrorists.
Türkiye, which shares a 900-kilometer (550-mile) border with Syria, launched successive offensives to push the YPG from the frontier from 2016 to 2019.
Ankara is in talks with Damascus and Washington to resolve the deadly clashes, the Turkish security sources said Friday.
They said the clashes between the Syrian army and the YPG in Aleppo neighborhoods with a high Kurdish population resulted from the YPG’s "uncooperative behavior and failure to abide by the March 10 deal.”
They said Ankara expects the PKK/YPG to "avoid harming Syria’s territorial integrity, political unity or social peace.”