Syria: Defense ministry announces ceasefire after days of clashes in Aleppo

Following three days of violence between government forces and Kurdish fighters in Aleppo, a city in northern Syria, Syria’s Defense ministry has announced a ceasefire.

There was no immediate comment from the Kurdish led Syrian democratic forces; meanwhile a local Kurdish council refused calls for fighters to leave.

Radwan Hamadi, a resident in Aleppo, has been left shaken by the fighting but hopes the ceasefire will hold. “We had a very difficult night last night, but we just want this to pass peacefully. Hopefully things will get better after the ceasefire now. I’ve reopened my shop, thank God, now we can go back to working and making a living,” he said.

The fighting in recent days displaced tens of thousands of people.

The ministry statement announcing the ceasefire gave armed groups six hours to leave several neighbourhoods in Aleppo, including Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh, but in the hours after the statement was released, no fighters left.

Some residents remain optimistic nonetheless. Among them is Ahmed Hajjar, who said “the ceasefire is good, it’s excellent, thank God, it’s a very good step, the army took a good step. What we need now is for them to remove these checkpoints so we can breathe a little, so we can move around. I have a tailor shop and I can’t work now, the workers aren’t able to come, and I can’t send any products outside. If I want to bring in textiles I get stuck at the checkpoint for an hour and a half or two or three hours.”

The fighting erupted on Tuesday with exchanges of shelling and drone strikes. It came amid a deadlock in political negotiations between the central state and SDF.