Syria announces ceasefire in Aleppo after days of clashes with Kurdish fighters

ALEPPO, Syria (AP) — Syria's Defense Ministry announced a ceasefire on Friday after three days of clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters in the northern city of Aleppo that displaced over 140,000 people.

There was no immediate response from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, while a local Kurdish council rejected calls for the evacuation of fighters.

The Defense Ministry statement said the ceasefire became effective at 3 a.m. in the three city neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid and gave armed groups six hours to leave the area.

It said departing militants would be allowed to carry their “personal light weapons” and would be provided with an escort to the country's northeast, which is controlled by the SDF.

Aleppo 's Governor Azzam al-Gharib toured the contested neighborhoods with an escort of security forces overnight.

However, in the hours after the announcement no fighters departed. Buses lined up to evacuate militants remained empty hours after the deadline.

Associated Press journalists at the scene said a burst of machine-gun fire targeted the location the buses had entered from, and an artillery shell landed on the road, but calm quickly returned.

A local council representing the Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh neighborhoods issued a statement saying, “We will not accept the pressures imposed on us and the calls for surrender.”

“We do not trust the Damascus government to entrust our security to us, and we have decided to remain in our neighborhoods and defend them,” it said.

By Friday evening, the truce appeared to be on the verge of breaking, with the Syrian army announcing Sheikh Maqsoud to be a “closed military zone.”

Tom Barrack, the U.S. envoy to Syria, welcomed the ceasefire announcement and extended “profound gratitude to all parties — the Syrian government, the Syrian Democratic Forces, local authorities, and community leaders — for the restraint and goodwill that made this vital pause possible.”

Barrack's statement on X said the U.S. was working with the parties to extend the ceasefire beyond the six-hour deadline.

An estimated 142,000 people have been displaced by the fighting that broke out Tuesday with exchanges of shelling and drone strikes.

Each side has accused the other of starting the violence and of deliberately targeting civilian neighborhoods and infrastructure, including ambulance crews and hospitals.

Kurdish forces said at least 12 civilians were killed in the Kurdish-majority neighborhoods, while government officials reported at least nine civilians were killed in the surrounding government-controlled areas in the fighting.

Dozens more on both sides have been wounded. It was not clear how many fighters were killed on each side.

Residents of the contested areas were hoping that the ceasefire would take hold Friday.

Ahmed Hajjar, a tailor in Achrafieh, said the ceasefire announcement was “a good step” but called for the removal of army checkpoints around the neighborhood.

“I can’t work now, the workers aren’t able to come, and I can’t send any products outside,” he said. "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 clashes come amid an impasse in political negotiations between the central state and the SDF.

The leadership in Damascus under interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa had signed a deal in March last year with the SDF, which controls much of the northeast, for it to merge with the Syrian army by the end of 2025. There have been disagreements on how it would happen.

Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December 2024, were previously Turkey-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.

The SDF has for years been the main U.S. partner in Syria in fighting against the Islamic State group, but Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkey. A peace process is now underway.

Despite the long-running U.S. support for the SDF, the Trump administration has also developed close ties with al-Sharaa’s government and has pushed the Kurds to implement the March deal.

Al-Sharaa spoke by phone Friday with Masoud Barzani, head of the Kurdistan Democratic Party -- the dominant Kurdish party in neighboring Iraq -- both officials said in statements.

The KDP has friendly relations with Turkey and has historically been at odds with the SDF and other groups aligned with the PKK, but over the past year they have made steps to mend ties.

Members of Syrian government forces stand around buses prepared to evacuate Kurdish militants, under escort to the country's northeast, controlled by the SDF, after a ceasefire was announced following days of clashes in the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Members of Syrian government forces deploy on the streets as they take over the Achrafieh neighborhood from Kurdish fighters after three days of clashes in a contested area of the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

A Syrian girl sweeps debris along a street lined with damaged buildings in the Achrafieh neighborhood after a ceasefire was announced following three days of clashes between government forces and Kurdish fighters in a contested area of the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Residents flee the Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh neighbourhoods after clashes erupted Tuesday between Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters in a contested area of the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Residents displaced from the Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh neighborhoods take shelter inside a mosque in Aleppo, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026, after clashes erupted Tuesday between Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters in a contested area of Aleppo. (AP Photo/Ghaith Alsayed)

Syrian government forces take over the Achrafieh neighborhood from Kurdish fighters during ongoing clashes that erupted Tuesday in a contested area of the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, early Friday, Jan. 9, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Syrian government forces take over the Achrafieh neighborhood from Kurdish fighters during ongoing clashes that erupted Tuesday in a contested area of the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

Members of Syrian government forces deploy on the streets as they take over the Achrafieh neighborhood from Kurdish fighters during ongoing clashes that erupted Tuesday in a contested area of the northern city of Aleppo, Syria, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (AP Photo/Omar Albam)

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran signaled Friday that security forces would crack down on protesters, directly challenging U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge to support those peacefully demonstrating as the death toll rose to at least 62.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed Trump as having hands “stained with the blood of Iranians” as supporters shouted “Death to America!” in footage aired by Iranian state television. State media later repeatedly referred to demonstrators as “terrorists,” setting the stage for a violent crackdown like those that followed other nationwide protests in recent years.

Protesters are “ruining their own streets ... in order to please the president of the United States,” the 86-year-old Khamenei said to a crowd at his compound in Tehran. “Because he said that he would come to their aid. He should pay attention to the state of his own country instead.”

Iran’s judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei separately vowed that punishment for protesters “will be decisive, maximum and without any legal leniency.”

There was no immediate response from Washington, though Trump has repeated his pledge to strike Iran if protesters are killed, a threat that's taken on greater significance after the U.S. military raid that seized Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro.

Despite Iran’s theocracy cutting off the nation from the internet and international telephone calls, short online videos shared by activists purported to show protesters chanting against Iran’s government around bonfires as debris littered the streets in the capital, Tehran, and other areas into Friday morning.

Iranian state media alleged “terrorist agents” of the U.S. and Israel set fires and sparked violence. It also said there were “casualties,” without elaborating.

The full scope of the demonstrations couldn’t be immediately determined due to the communications blackout, though it represented yet another escalation in protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy and that has morphed into the most significant challenge to the government in several years. The protests have intensified steadily since beginning Dec. 28.

The protests also represented the first test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose fatally ill father fled Iran just before the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. Pahlavi, who called for the protests Thursday night, similarly has called for demonstrations at 8 p.m. Friday.

Demonstrations have included cries in support of the shah, something that could bring a death sentence in the past but now underlines the anger fueling the protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy.

So far, violence around the demonstrations has killed at least 62 people while more than 2,300 others have been detained, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.

“What turned the tide of the protests was former Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi’s calls for Iranians to take to the streets at 8 p.m. on Thursday and Friday,” said Holly Dagres, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “Per social media posts, it became clear that Iranians had delivered and were taking the call seriously to protest in order to oust the Islamic Republic.”

“This is exactly why the internet was shut down: to prevent the world from seeing the protests. Unfortunately, it also likely provided cover for security forces to kill protesters.”

When the clock struck 8 p.m. Thursday, neighborhoods across Tehran erupted in chanting, witnesses said. The chants included “Death to the dictator!” and “Death to the Islamic Republic!” Others praised the shah, shouting: “This is the last battle! Pahlavi will return!” Thousands could be seen on the streets before all communication to Iran cut out.

“Iranians demanded their freedom tonight. In response, the regime in Iran has cut all lines of communication,” Pahlavi said. “It has shut down the internet. It has cut landlines. It may even attempt to jam satellite signals.”

He went on to call for European leaders to join Trump in promising to “hold the regime to account.”

“I call on them to use all technical, financial, and diplomatic resources available to restore communication to the Iranian people so that their voice and their will can be heard and seen,” he added. “Do not let the voices of my courageous compatriots be silenced.”

Pahlavi had said he would offer further plans depending on the response to his call. His support of and from Israel has drawn criticism in the past — particularly after the 12-day war Israel waged on Iran in June. Demonstrators have shouted in support of the shah in some demonstrations, but it isn’t clear whether that’s support for Pahlavi himself or a desire to return to a time before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

The internet cut also appears to have taken Iran’s state-run and semiofficial news agencies offline. The state TV acknowledgment at 8 a.m. Friday represented the first official word about the demonstrations.

State TV claimed the protests were violent and caused casualties, but did not offer nationwide figures. It said the protests saw “people’s private cars, motorcycles, public places such as the metro, fire trucks and buses set on fire.” State TV later reported that violence overnight killed six people in Hamedan, some 280 kilometers (175 miles) southwest of Tehran, and two security force members in Qom, 125 kilometers (75 miles) south of the capital.

The European Union and Germany condemned the violence targeting demonstrators as new protests were reported in Zahedan in Iran's restive southwestern Sistan and Baluchestan province.

Iran has faced rounds of nationwide protests in recent years. As sanctions tightened and Iran struggled after the 12-day war, its rial currency collapsed in December, reaching 1.4 million to $1. Protests began soon after, with demonstrators chanting against Iran’s theocracy.

It remains unclear why Iranian officials have yet to crack down harder on the demonstrators. Trump warned last week that if Tehran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” America “will come to their rescue.”

In an interview with talk show host Hugh Hewitt aired Thursday, Trump reiterated his pledge.

Iran has “been told very strongly, even more strongly than I’m speaking to you right now, that if they do that, they’re going to have to pay hell,” Trump said.

He demurred when asked if he’d meet with Pahlavi.

“I’m not sure that it would be appropriate at this point to do that as president,” Trump said. “I think that we should let everybody go out there, and we see who emerges.”

Speaking in an interview with Sean Hannity aired Thursday night on Fox News, Trump went as far as to suggest Khamenei may want to leave Iran.

“He's looking to go someplace,” Trump said. “It's getting very bad.”

This frame grab from a video released by Iran state TV shows vehicles burning amid night of mass protests in Tehran, Iran, Thursday, Jan. 8, 2026. (Iran state TV via AP)

This frame grab from a video released Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, by Iranian state television shows cars driving past burning vehicles during a night of mass protests in Tehran, Iran. (Iranian state TV via AP)

In this frame grab from video taken by an individual not employed by The Associated Press and obtained by the AP outside Iran shows people blocking an intersection during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Thursday Jan. 8, 2026. (UGC via AP)