Civilians begin leaving Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsoud as Syrian Army opens corridor

ISTANBUL

Civilians began leaving the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood in the northern Syrian city of Aleppo on Friday through a humanitarian corridor opened by the Syrian Army, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) reported.

According to the agency, residents started exiting via the al-Awarid corridor, opened by the Syrian Army to facilitate the safe movement of civilians amid attacks by the terrorist organization YPG/SDF.

Alikhbariya TV said the army identified locations inside the neighborhood that had been turned into military positions used by the SDF forces to shell Aleppo neighborhoods.

Separately, SANA reported that SDF fighters opened fire on a protest in the town of Abu Hamam, in the countryside of Deir Ezzor, where demonstrators called for an end to abuses by the group and for the withdrawal of its forces from Aleppo.

Since Tuesday, the SDF has shelled residential neighborhoods, civilian facilities and Syrian army positions in Aleppo. The attacks have killed nine people and wounded 55 others and triggered the displacement of about 165,000 residents from the Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhoods.

On March 10, 2025, the Syrian presidency announced the signing of an agreement for the SDF’s integration into state institutions, reaffirming the country's territorial unity and rejecting any attempts at division.

Authorities said in the months since, the SDF has not shown any efforts to meet the terms of the agreement.

The government has intensified efforts to maintain security across the country since the ouster of the Assad regime in December 2024, after 24 years in power.