Kurdish militia withdraws slowly from Aleppo amid fear of more sectarian killings in Syria

A vague April 1 deal stipulated a Kurdish pull-out from the country's second city

Kurdish forces leave the city of Aleppo on Wednesday as part of an agreement with the Syrian government. EPA

A Kurdish militia withdrew another batch of fighters from northern parts of Syria’s business capital Aleppo on Wednesday and Thursday, residents said, in accordance with a deal to avoid violence with central authorities who replaced Bashar Al Assad in December.

However, it remains unclear whether the central government will have full control of the area, where about 100,000 Kurds live in enclaves controlled by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia. The Kurdish issue has emerged as one of the most complex in the country since Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), an armed group formerly affiliated with Al Qaeda, led the rebel offensive that toppled Mr Al Assad and installed the new government in Damascus.

HTS is seeking to disarm the country's numerous factions and militias, which operated in the civil war, by offering them a place in a new army and other security organisations it is setting up. President Ahmad Al Shara, who is also the HTS leader, has vowed to unify the country since he was appointed president by former rebel factions in January.

The YPG, which controls the neighbourhoods of Ashrafiyeh, Sheikh Maksoud and Liramoun in Aleppo, is the main element of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed alliance which controls large areas of eastern Syria and played a central role in the defeat of ISIS in the country in 2019.

A Kurdish administration official in Sheikh Maqsoud said he expected the YPG to complete the withdrawal of its 2,000 fighters from Aleppo in one week. He said three batches of fighters have left the city since last week.

Under a deal signed by representatives of the YPG and the government on April 1, which has no timeframe, "all military units are obliged to withdraw to the east of the Euphrates river", followed by the entry of the government's police units.

But the Kurdish official told The National that YPG intelligence personnel, as well as a Kurdish police force called Al Ashayesh, would remain in Aleppo, especially in Sheikh Maqsoud and Al Asharafiyeh. "The deal will be implemented, but slowly," he said.

He added that sectarian killings in Syria's coastal region have raised fears of retribution against Kurds if the government is allowed full control over Kurdish areas in Aleppo. Residents of the coastal region have reported more killings of members of the Alawite sect, to which Mr Al Assad belongs, since the sectarian massacres there in March raised international concerns about whether minorities would be protected under the new government.

A Kurdish technician who works at a factory in Aleppo and lives in Sheikh Maqsoud said that plainclothes YPG personnel were still stationed in the neighbourhood, although the number of the militia's regular troops had reduced.

The Aleppo agreement followed the signing on March 10 of a broader but still vague agreement between Mr Al Shara and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi to end hostilities in the resource-rich eastern part of the country. The two men signed a briefly worded agreement at the presidential palace in Damascus to bring the east under the control of the new authorities. How the deal will be implemented has yet to be negotiated and there is no guarantee the process will succeed.

Days before the agreement was signed, forces led by HTS clashed in Damascus with members of the Druze sect, another minority fearful for their future under the new government.