Overview
- Damascus declared a truce from 3 a.m. Friday that ordered Kurdish fighters to quit Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafiyeh and Bani Zaid within six hours with light arms and escorts to the northeast, a demand local Kurdish councils rejected as a call to surrender.
- After the deadline, the army resumed strikes, issued evacuation maps and opened corridors, later asserting Sheikh Maqsoud was largely or fully cleared as the SDF denied defeat and reported continued street fighting.
- Security sources said some Kurdish fighters and Asayish personnel departed or surrendered, with Reuters witnessing buses and detainees, while a remaining group held out including inside a hospital.
- At least 22 people have been killed and more than 140,000 displaced since Tuesday, with each side accusing the other of targeting civilians and disputing whether a struck hospital was a medical facility or a weapons depot.
- U.S. envoy Tom Barrack is pushing to extend a pause and broker a negotiated withdrawal, Turkey voiced support for Damascus’s operation, and the UN and France urged restraint and a return to talks on the March integration framework.