Fear looms as half a million Kurds, Yazidis trapped in northern Aleppo

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Fear grows over the fate of approximately 500,000 Kurds and 5,000 Yazidis trapped in the Kurdish neighborhoods of Aleppo province, activists warned on Monday, as Kurdish forces remain under siege in the conflict-stricken province.

“There is now a great fear regarding the Kurdish residents of Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafiyeh in Aleppo, and the Shahba region. There are concerns that large-scale retaliation might be carried out against the Kurdish civilians in the area,” Ali Iso, the director of Ezdina, a Germany-based Yazidi rights organization, told Rudaw.

“There is another fear for the Yazidi Kurds, as there are Kurds on one side and Yazidis on the other. According to our information, the fate of a 63-year-old Yazidi civilian is unknown,” he added.

Media affiliated with the Kurdish-led Rojava administration on Sunday reported fierce clashes between the SDF and Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) in northern Aleppo province, near the Kurdish-held town of Tal Rifaat near Afrin and Shahba.

Also on Sunday, the Idlib-based Syrian opposition government called on the Kurdish forces in Aleppo to withdraw from the city towards northeast Syria, promising to take care of the Kurdish civilians in the Kurdish neighborhoods. 

Farhad Shami, the spokesperson for the SDF said on X that the Kurdish forces did not withdraw from the Kurdish neighborhoods, despite the intensified attack, adding that they will support any decision to “resist against terrorist groups.”

Iso noted that there are about 5,000 Yazidis and they are in dire conditions, as clashes continue in Aleppo's Kurdish neighborhoods, and the Shahba region.

Tensions escalated in Syria as a coalition of rebel forces led by the jihadist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) marched on Aleppo and sent regime soldiers fleeing. The SDF took control of strategic locations in eastern Aleppo and formed a corridor to the city from the Euphrates River, briefly capturing key sites such as Aleppo International Airport on Saturday. 

The Kurdish-led force later tactically withdrew from many of the sites, while maintaining their hold over Aleppo’s Kurdish-majority neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh, both long held by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) - the SDF’s backbone. 

Rojava’s ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD) claimed in a statement on X that the Kurdish-held Shahba area in northern Aleppo is “witnessing massacres” by Turkey-backed militants.

Earlier on Sunday, the Democratic Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES), declared general mobilization across Rojava. Hours later, the SDF urged the people in northeast Syria (Rojava) to “heed the call”.