Syrian army and Kurdish-led SDF trade ceasefire accusations as clashes resume
The Syrian army and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have accused each other of violating a ceasefire that was only recently extended, as fighting and drone attacks were reported near Kobani, Aleppo and Hasakah.
Al Jazeera reported that the ceasefire appears to be holding only partially. The army said the SDF launched more than 25 explosive drones against its positions in the Aleppo countryside, while the SDF accused Syrian government forces of attacking areas southeast of Ain al-Arab, also known as Kobani, and shelling residential neighborhoods.
The competing accusations matter because the ceasefire had just been extended by 15 days after an earlier four-day truce expired. That extension was intended to support a U.S. mission to transfer detainees with alleged ISIS links from SDF-run prisons in northeastern Syria to Iraq. In other words, the ceasefire was not merely symbolic; it was tied to a live security operation involving detainees deemed too dangerous to remain where they were.
The evidence packet says the Syrian Arab News Agency reported that SDF drones targeted army positions and destroyed four vehicles, while the defense ministry said the drones also hit civilian homes and roads in Sarrin town. The SDF countered that Syrian army attacks and artillery shelling caused violent clashes and ongoing fighting. Both sides are trying to establish that the other broke the truce first.
Beyond the immediate incident, the wider political picture is that government forces have seized large areas of northern and eastern territory from the SDF in recent weeks, strengthening President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s position. The government has been pushing to bring the whole country under state control, while Kurdish-led authorities have resisted merging their institutions with Damascus.
That makes the ceasefire fragile by design. It is a pause in a broader struggle over sovereignty, administration and military authority. The clashes near Kobani and Aleppo show how quickly the arrangement can deteriorate when each side believes the other is testing the line.
The packet also mentions wounded civilians and reports of one person killed in shelling in Hasakah countryside, though those claims are tied to separate accounts that could not be independently verified here. What can be verified is that both sides are openly blaming each other and that the truce is under strain.
For now, the situation is best described as a ceasefire with active breaches and no trust. The latest exchanges show that any durable calm in northeastern Syria will depend not only on military restraint, but on whether the political dispute between Damascus and the Kurdish-led administration can be narrowed at all.
The evidence confirms that the fighting is still alive, even if the ceasefire has not fully collapsed.
