Syrian authorities on Saturday began transferring Kurdish fighters from the country’s second city, Aleppo, to areas they control in the country’s northeast, state television reported, after days of deadly clashes.

The violence in Aleppo erupted after efforts to integrate the Kurds’ de facto autonomous administration and military into the country’s new government stalled.

Since the fighting began on Tuesday, at least 21 civilians have been killed, according to figures from both sides, while Aleppo’s governor said 155,000 people have been displaced.

On Saturday evening, state television reported that Kurdish fighters “who announced their surrender… were transported by bus to the city of Tabaqa” in the Kurdish-controlled northeast.

An AFP correspondent saw at least five buses on Saturday carrying fighters leaving the Kurdish-majority Sheikh Maqsud district, accompanied by security forces.

In a statement to the official SANA news agency, the military announced earlier on Saturday “a halt to all military operations in the Sheikh Maqsud neighborhood.”

A Syrian security source had told AFP that the last Kurdish fighters had entrenched themselves in the area of al-Razi hospital in Sheikh Maqsud, before being evacuated by authorities.

Syria’s Defense Ministry had declared 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, but fighting resumed in the evening.

There was no public response from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to the ceasefire announcement, 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........

© The Times of Israel