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ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdish-majority neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsood in Syria’s Aleppo is bracing for a possible attack by rebels who have gained significant territory in a surprise offensive against the Syrian army.
The People’s Protection Units (YPG), which controls the neighborhood, published a video early Saturday morning that it said shows “civilians… preparing to defend their neighborhood in the event of an attack.”
The footage, in which the faces of people have been blurred, shows men and women, some dressed in civilian clothes, readying rifles and setting up makeshift checkpoints in the streets.
“We love peace, democracy and solution,” an unidentified man says in the video, adding that the young and the old are ready to defend their neighborhood.
Sheikh Maqsood has been attacked by jihadist fighters numerous times during the country’s civil war. The latest possible threat has come from rebel forces led by the jihadist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) who launched a surprise offensive launched on Wednesday, seizing territory from government troops for the first time in years.
They entered the city of Aleppo on Friday afternoon after taking several villages in the surrounding countryside. The forces have reached the edge of Ashrafiyeh, another Kurdish-majority neighborhood that is held by the YPG and borders Sheikh Maqsood, according to pro-HTS media.
In 2016, Amnesty International said that Islamist rebel attacks on the neighbourhood that year constituted war crimes. More than 83 civilians were killed in the attacks.
Farhad Shami, spokesperson for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a United States-backed force spearheaded by the YPG, said on Friday that they are closely following the developments and that their arch-enemy Turkey is behind the offensive.
“The developments in northwestern Syria are highly sensitive. We are closely monitoring the developments with utmost attention. Regardless of the circumstances, our unwavering national and moral priority remains the defense of our people and our regions. Accordingly, we will intervene if necessary to protect them,” he said in a post on X.
Rami Abdulrahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), told Rudaw on Friday that if the rebels do attack the YPG in Sheikh Maqsood, "there will be violent clashes." However, he believes HTS does not want a confrontation with Kurdish forces.
Other Kurdish areas in Aleppo are Tal Rifaat to the northwest and Shahba to the north. Both are home to hundreds of thousands of Kurds displaced from other parts of the country, most of whom fled attacks by Turkey and its Syrian proxies.
Both areas are under the control of the YPG and there are also regime forces. Local sources told Rudaw on Saturday that the Syrian army has begun withdrawing from Shahba.
Rudaw English asked a senior Rojava official about the possibility of a Turkish attack on Tal Rifaat.
“Everything is possible now. Tal Rifaat is under threat,” said the official, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the matter.
Iran and Russia, staunch supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, have expressed their support for their ally. Moscow said its airstrikes killed over 200 rebels in 24 hours.
Both Iran and Russia, however, are in very different positions from the last time they helped Assad push the rebels out of Aleppo in 2016. Russia is at war in Ukraine and Iran’s network of proxies, including Lebanese Hezbollah, has been weakened by Israel.
Turkey, which backs various Syrian rebel groups, has threatened in the past to carry out an offensive to remove Kurdish fighters from Tal Rifaat. It said it is closely following the situation and urged the warring parties not to cause “larger instabilities.”
Ankara also accused Kurdish forces in Tal Rifaat and nearby Manbij of “trying to take advantage of the current state of instability.”
As of Saturday, the clashes in Aleppo have claimed the lives of 277 people, including 24 civilians, according to SOHR.
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