Syrian authorities said calm and stability had returned to Aleppo on Sunday as the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced a ceasefire had been reached, ending days of deadly clashes.
Aleppo's governor said the security situation in the area was returning to normal in the neighbourhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh, which had been the site of battles between the Syrian army and the Kurdish forces since January 6.
More than 150,000 people have been displaced since the fighting broke out, according to Syrian state media. They are eager to return to their homes now that the fighting has subsided.
Ghada Raii, 53, was one person among the dozens of families who waited in the rain from early morning, hoping to check on their properties and return home. She left on Tuesday under heavy bombardment as violence broke out.
On Sunday morning, the army was still barring access to the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh districts, as clearance operations for unexploded war remnants were reportedly continuing. Exhausted residents, some in tears, asked soldiers when they would be allowed to enter.
The latest displacement has revived painful memories for Syrians, many of whom were forced to flee their homes multiple times during the civil war. Ms Raii said she had been displaced at least four times during the civil war, which erupted in 2011 when the Assad regime cracked down on protests.
“Each time our house was destroyed,” she said. On the ceasefire, she said: “Inshallah, it stays that way. We have had enough. We just want to go home now. Where else would we go?”
SDF commander Mazloum Abdi announced in the early hours of Sunday that an “understanding that leads to a ceasefire” had been reached due to international mediation.
The agreement would allow “the evacuation of martyrs, wounded, trapped civilians, and fighters from Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh neighbourhoods to north and east Syria,” read his statement.
The internal security forces, Asayish, denied Syrian claims that their forces had surrendered, and said a ceasefire had been reached to protect civilians from further harm.
US envoy Tom Barrack on Saturday said he had met the Syrian President Ahmad Al Shara in Damascus and urged all parties to “exercise maximum restraint, immediately cease hostilities, and return to dialogue”.
While Kurdish fighters have been expelled from the two neighbourhoods, the SDF still controls a much wider territory in the north-east. The violence has complicated the already stalled integration of the semi-autonomous bloc into the central government.
