The Democratic Autonomous Administration in North and East Syria (DAANES) called on its institutions to “facilitate the passage of people” fleeing the conflict in and around Aleppo city.
“We stress the need to provide the necessary support to ensure their safe arrival to their destinations and help them reach their families,” the Kurdish administration added.
Rebel forces spearheaded by the jihadist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group entered the city of Aleppo on Friday afternoon, according to Syrian opposition media. They began their offensive on Wednesday, seizing territory from government troops for the first time in years.
As of Friday at least 218 combatants have died - 114 from rebel ranks, 21 from the Syrian army, and the rest belonging to pro-government militias - according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR).
HTS, a former branch of al-Qaeda, is the prominent force among dozens of rebel factions in the northwest. The group, which has been internationally recognized as a terror organization, controls large swathes of Idlib as well as parts of Aleppo, Hama, and Latakia provinces.
DAANES itself is already struggling to cope with hundreds of thousands of people displaced from other parts of Syria due to conflict.