ALEPPO: A US-led coalition intervened on Friday to reduce tensions between Syria’s government and Kurdish forces, with Damascus determined to expel them from an area in the country’s north.

After driving Kurdish forces from Aleppo last week, the Syrian army deployed reinforcements near the Kurdish-controlled Deir Hafer, some 50 kilometres east of the city, ordering Kurdish fighters to leave the area.

The Syrian government is seeking to extend its authority nationwide following the ousting of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad in Dec 2024.

Farhad Shami, spokesman for the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said the coalition had met with them in Deir Hafer on Friday.

Following the meeting, a Syrian military source said that “a delegation from the Syrian defence ministry entered the Deir Hafer area to negotiate with SDF leaders”.

The US envoy for Syria, Tom Barrack, posted on X that he was working “around the clock” to prevent any escalation between Kurdish fighters and government forces, both of which have US backing.

The situation in Deir Hafer was calm after the Syrian army’s deadline for civilians to flee had expired.

Civilians fleeing

Quoting local authorities in Deir Hafer, Syrian state television reported that “more than 4,000 civilians” had left the Kurdish-controlled region.

Some of them were seen using a rickety bridge to cross a branch of the Euphrates River.

The military had used the same tactic in the city of Aleppo last week, telling civilians to depart before shelling Kurdish-held districts.

“The SDF stopped us from leaving – that’s why we used an agricultural back road and then crossed the bridge,” said 60-year-old Abu Mohammad, who was accompanied by relatives.

Civilians have been fleeing the area on back roads since Thursday.

Syrian authorities had extended the deadline to flee until Friday, accusing the SDF of preventing civilians from leaving, a claim the group dismissed as “unfounded”.

‘Hurry and defect’

Syria’s military called on members of the SDF on Friday to “hurry and defect from this organisation and return to your country and your people”.

The SDF in a statement said it believed these calls were intended to “create discord among the region’s communities”.

On Sunday, government troops took full control of Aleppo city after capturing two Kurdish-majority neighbourhoods.

The fighting came as progress to implement a deal in March to fold a Kurdish de facto autonomous administration in the north into the state had stalled.

The SDF controls swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast, much of which it captured during the country’s civil war and the fight against the militant Islamic State group over the past decade.

Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, said that capture of Aleppo’s Kurdish-held areas “doesn’t change the military balance” but shows that Damascus “can impose costs when negotiations stall”.

While Syria’s government “cannot replicate” this scenario in the northeast, “it can apply sustained pressure along contact lines” like Deir Hafer.

Published in Dawn, January 17th, 2026