Syria’s government was in full control of Aleppo on Sunday after taking over the city’s Kurdish neighbourhoods and evacuating fighters there to Kurdish autonomous areas following days of deadly clashes.Residents of the Ashrafiyeh neighbourhood, the first of two areas to fall to the Syrian army, began returning to their homes to inspect the damage, finding shrapnel and broken glass littering the streets.The violence started earlier this week after negotiations stalled on integrating the Kurds’ de facto autonomous administration and forces into the country’s new government.A Syrian security official told AFP on condition of anonymity that 419 Kurdish fighters, including 59 wounded and an unspecified number of dead, were transferred from the Sheikh Maqsud neighbourhood — the second area to come under army control — to the Kurdish-controlled zone in the northeast.The arriving fighters were met with tears and vows of vengeance from hundreds of people who gathered to greet them in the northeastern Kurdish city of Qamishli, according to AFP correspondents at the scene.”We will avenge Sheikh Maqsud… we will avenge our fighters, we will avenge our martyrs,” Umm Dalil, 55, said.A correspondent saw crossed-out images of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and US envoy Tom Barrack, as people chanted against Sharaa.Kurdish leader Mazlum Abdi said on X that the combatants were evacuated “through the mediation of international parties to stop the attacks and violations against our people in Aleppo”.The Syrian official said that 300 other Kurds, including fighters and members of the domestic security forces, had been arrested.Britain-based monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told AFP that 300 “young Kurds” had been arrested, stating that they were “civilians, not fighters”.- Damaged walls, looted homes -On Sunday in Ashrafiyeh, an AFP correspondent saw people carrying bags and blankets return to their homes after being searched by security forces.Yahya al-Sufi, a 49-year-old clothing seller, told AFP he had fled during the violence.”When we returned, we found holes in the walls and our homes had been looted… Now that things have calmed down, we’re back to repair the walls and restore the water and electricity,” he said.Some had hoped calm would prevail between the government in Damascus and the Kurdish fighters.”We didn’t want things to get this bad. I wish the Kurdish leadership had responded to the Syrian state. We’ve had enough bloodshed,” said Mohammed Bitar, 39, who stayed in the Ashrafieh neighbourhood.”There’s no Arab, no Kurd, we’re all Syrians.”Sheikh Maqsud, however, remained off limits on Sunday, with residents barred from returning, an interior ministry source told AFP.An AFP correspondent in the area saw burnt armoured vehicles, cars loaded with ammunition and many landmines authorities took during their combing operation.Syrian authorities said on Sunday that the toll from the fighting had reached “24 dead and 129 wounded since last Tuesday”, while the Observatory reported 45 civilians and 60 soldiers and fighters were killed from both sides.The Observatory reported “field executions” and the burning of fighters’ bodies in Sheikh Maqsud by government forces, along with other “violations”, but AFP was unable to independently verify the claims.- ‘Return to dialogue’ -US envoy Tom Barrack met Saturday with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, and afterwards issued a call for a “return to dialogue” with the Kurds in accordance with an integration agreement sealed last year.Abdi in his statement called on “the mediators to abide by their promises to stop the violations”.The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which Abdi heads, control swathes of the country’s oil-rich north and northeast, much of which they captured during Syria’s civil war and the fight against the Islamic State group. Neighbouring Turkey, a close ally of Syria’s new leaders, views the SDF’s main component as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which agreed last year to end its four-decade armed struggle against Ankara.Turkey has launched successive offensives to push Kurdish forces from the frontier.The March integration agreement between Damascus and the Kurds was meant to be implemented last year, but differences, including Kurdish demands for decentralised rule, stymied progress.The Aleppo fighting recalled a chapter in Syria’s civil war when fierce fighting pitted the city’s rebel-held east against the west, then controlled by the forces of ousted leader Bashar al-Assad.Assad’s forces seized control of the entire city in December 2016, forcing the opposition and their families to evacuate to what was then the rebel stronghold of Idlib in the northwest.

Residents of a Kurdish neighbourhood in Syria’s second city of Aleppo passed through government checkpoints Sunday to find blackened walls, destroyed vehicles and debris-littered streets as they returned home after days of deadly clashes.While they picked up the pieces in the city’s Ashrafiyeh neighbourhood, the city’s only other Kurdish-majority district Sheikh Maqsud still remained off limits after suffering the worst of the fighting.Many locals like wheelchair-bound Abdul Qader Satar returned to Ashrafiyeh on Sunday to inspect their homes after days of violence.”I left on the first day and took refuge in one of the mosques,” the 34-year-old told AFP while loading belongings onto his wheelchair.”We left quickly with only the clothes on our backs… and now we are back to check on the house.”Others said they remained in their homes despite the violence, hoping calm would prevail between the government in Damascus and the Kurdish fighters.”We didn’t want things to get this bad. I wish the Kurdish leadership had responded to the Syrian state. We’ve had enough bloodshed,” said Mohammed Bitar, 39, who stayed in the Ashrafieh neighbourhood.”There’s no Arab, no Kurd, we’re all Syrians.”But the deadly clashes that erupted in the Kurdish-majority neighbourhoods on Tuesday left dozens dead and displaced around 155,000 people, according to Syrian authorities. Syria’s government has since taken full control of the two areas as of Sunday, after agreeing the transfer of Kurdish fighters from the districts to Kurdish autonomous areas in the country’s northeast.- ‘Closed military zone’ -In the streets of Ashrafiyeh, crumbled walls had turned black from explosions while families and children carried blankets and bags home to inspect damage to their homes under a heavy security presence.”We were sitting safely in our homes… suddenly, heavy gunfire erupted. We left our homes under the bullets and fled,” clothing seller Yahya al-Sufi, 49, told AFP in Ashrafiyeh.”When we returned, we found holes in the walls and our homes had been looted… Now that things have calmed down, we’re back to repair the walls and restore the water and electricity,” he added, while supervising workers repairing the holes in his wall.While many left the neighbourhood, Ammar Abdel Qader chose to stay with his family. Standing in front of the pharmacy where he works, the 48-year-old said “there was fear of the bombing, and most people left, but my family and I stayed and took refuge in the inner rooms”.”Now normal life has returned to Ashrafiyeh, things are good, and people are returning to their homes.”The last area to fall to the Syria army, the Sheikh Maqsud neighbourhood near Ashrafiyeh, was still closed off to those who wanted to return.Kurdish fighters had entrenched themselves in a hospital in the area until Syrian authorities announced their transfer on Sunday.An interior ministry source told AFP the neighbourhood was still considered a “closed military zone” despite the departures.Ambulances later entered Sheikh Maqsud as authorities combed the area after the last Kurdish fighters had left.- ‘We will fight’ -Syrian authorities and the Observatory both said the violence in the districts killed dozens.In Qamishli city in the Kurdish-controlled northeast, the evacuated fighters were met with tears and pledges of vengeance from hundreds of people who gathered to greet them.Upon his arrival, one fighter vowed “revenge” after embracing his mother as they both wept.An AFP correspondent saw crossed-out images of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and US envoy Tom Barrack, as people chanted against the Syrian leader.”We will avenge Sheikh Maqsud… we will avenge our fighters, we will avenge our martyrs,” Umm Dalil, 55, said.”The Kurdish people will not fall, the Kurdish people will triumph, we will fight until the end and victory will be ours.”strs/mam-lk/nad/jfx