Cautious calm in Aleppo after clashes between Syrian forces and Kurdish fighters

A cautious calm set in on Tuesday morning in neighbourhoods in the city of Aleppo in northern Syria after overnight clashes between Syrian security forces and Kurdish fighters with the government announcing a truce between the two sides.

The violence came as tensions grew between the central government in Damascus and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, after the latter targeted checkpoints of the Internal Security Forces on Monday evening, killing one and injuring four.

The SDF denied attacking the checkpoints and said its forces withdrew from the area months ago.

SDF forces fired into residential neighbourhoods near the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighbourhoods of Aleppo "with mortar shells and heavy machine guns", and there were civilian casualties, but it was not clear how many were wounded and killed, SANA reported.

Syrian state-run TV reported on Tuesday morning that a ceasefire had been reached, without providing further details, with Syrian Defence Minister Surhaf Abu Qasra confirming the truce later.

The new leadership in Damascus, led by interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, the former leader of the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham insurgent group that helped overthrow former Syrian President Bashar Assad, inked a deal in March with the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which controls much of the country's northeast.

Under the agreement, the SDF was to merge its forces with the new Syrian army, but implementation has stalled.

The Syrian ministry of interior has blamed the SDF for breaking the agreement and accused the Kurdish-led group of attempting to open smuggling routes, as well as inciting residents in the two Aleppo neighbourhoods against security forces.

Damascus seeks to consolidate control over all of Syria, while the SDF wants to maintain the de facto autonomy of northeast Syria from the central state. Syria held parliamentary elections on Sunday in most areas of Syria, but voting was not held in SDF-controlled areas.

In April, scores of SDF fighters left the two predominantly Kurdish neighbourhoods in Aleppo as part of the deal with Damascus.

The SDF issued a statement Tuesday accusing government military factions of carrying out "repeated attacks" against civilians in the two Aleppo neighbourhoods and imposing a siege on them.

Government forces then attempted "to advance with tanks and armoured vehicles, targeting residential areas with mortar shells and drone strikes, which has led to civilian casualties and significant damage to property", the SDF said, which "provoked the residents and pushed them to defend themselves, alongside the internal security forces in the neighbourhoods".