The forces of the interim authority continue to impose a tight siege on the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods, which have a Kurdish-majority population, in the city of Aleppo in northern Syria, within the context of an ongoing security and military escalation since September 2025. This has been accompanied by multiple violations affecting the civilian population and the basic components of their livelihoods.
The imposed siege includes preventing the entry of basic materials, particularly fuel and construction materials, in addition to the establishment of mobile checkpoints and stringent inspection measures, and restricting residents’ movement toward the rest of Aleppo’s neighborhoods. This has been directly reflected in humanitarian and service conditions, especially in the education and heating sectors, amid rising concerns for the safety of civilians.
On 30 December 2025, the “Education Committee” in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods issued a decision to close all schools, totaling 13 schools, affiliated with the “Autonomous Administration” and the schools jointly administered by the “Autonomous Administration” and the interim authority, until after the Gregorian New Year. The decision came as a result of the loss of heating means due to the siege. School attendance is scheduled to resume on Sunday, 4 January 2026, after five days of closure.
On 27 December 2025, forces affiliated with the interim authority, deployed around the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods, arrested the two university students Bankin Aboud, a second-year student in the Faculty of Civil Engineering, and Ahmad Walid Omar, a first-year student in the same faculty, while they were returning from their university classes.
The student Ahmad Walid Omar was released after 24 hours of detention, while the student Bankin Aboud remained in custody until the evening of Thursday, 1 January 2026, when he was released.
Bankin Aboud
On 30 December 2025, a suicide drone targeted a civilian vehicle of the type “Trucks” while it was operating in a stone quarry in the vicinity of the al-Shaqif area north of the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood in the city of Aleppo, in an incident that falls within the targeting of civilian objects in the surroundings of the two neighborhoods.
On the night of 26 December 2025, the forces of the interim authority, represented by “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham,” launched a wide-scale attack on the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods using heavy machine guns and artillery, concurrently with the deployment of tanks and heavy military vehicles to the surroundings of the two neighborhoods, constituting a direct threat to the security and safety of the civilian population.
This was preceded by the shelling of one of the Kurdish Internal Security Forces’ checkpoints in the vicinity of al-Shihan roundabout, originating from positions belonging to the interim authority’s forces, days after the tightening of the siege on the two neighborhoods.
On 22 December 2025, the forces of the interim authority carried out similar attacks targeting the two neighborhoods using heavy weapons, artillery, and mortar shells, amid violent clashes with the Kurdish Internal Security Forces in the vicinity of the area. These attacks resulted in the killing of the citizen Fadwa Mohammad al-Kurdi, aged 57, and the injury of 19 other civilians, including women and children.
The shelling was accompanied by the circulation of a video recording of a religious cleric loyal to the interim authority in which he called for general mobilization against the Kurdish forces in Aleppo, including phrases that fall under hate speech. Media outlets also broadcast footage of militants affiliated with the interim authority directing artillery barrels toward residential neighborhoods in Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh.
In the late hours of the evening of 22 December 2025, the Kurdish forces and the forces of the interim authority reached a temporary truce, under which hostilities and shelling ceased, while the field situation remained tense.
These incidents fall within a continuing pattern of violations affecting the basic rights of civilians in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods, particularly the right to life and security, freedom of movement, access to basic necessities, and education. The residents of the two neighborhoods continue to demand an end to the attacks and the lifting of the siege, and to hold the responsible parties to their legal and humanitarian obligations toward civilians.
