Circulating footage dated 10 January 2026, filmed by fighters of the interim authority represented by “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham,” showed the perpetration of a massacre in the predominantly Kurdish Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood in the city of Aleppo in northern Syria, in which civilians and a female fighter from the Kurdish forces (local police) appear.
The circulated video clips show armed men from the interim authority committing killings and grave violations against civilians and a female fighter from the Kurdish forces inside the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood. In one clip, one of the armed men can be heard speaking about the use of shells and grenades inside a room that contained bodies, with fires burning at the site, while another armed man shouts inciting and insulting phrases at the dead and describes the Kurdish female fighter using terms degrading to human dignity.
Another clip, which could not be verified, shows a truck loaded with civilians, including a woman, while armed men from the interim authority detain one person who bears clear signs of blood as a result of being beaten and tortured, before he is dragged, thrown to the ground, and immediately executed.
A video clip also documented armed men from the interim authority throwing the body of a deceased Kurdish female fighter from the top of a building in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood. In the recording, the voice of the person filming can be heard uttering insulting phrases after throwing the body, in a scene reflecting a dangerous level of violence and violation of human dignity.
On 10 January 2026, the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood witnessed a wide campaign of arrests that targeted hundreds of Kurdish civilians, especially men, carried out by forces affiliated with the interim authority, in parallel with a military escalation and intense shelling that targeted the neighborhood. According to local sources, a large number of detainees were transported by buses, and the executing party announced that these individuals were “fighters from the Kurdish forces,” without information being available about the existence of legal procedures or the filing of clear charges.
Circulating footage also showed the buses transporting the detainees being subjected to insults and verbal attacks by journalists who were present on the outskirts of the neighborhood during the transfer process, behavior that was considered offensive to journalistic ethics and a violation of professional coverage standards.
These violations come within the context of an ongoing military escalation the area has witnessed since Tuesday, 6 January 2026, during which the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood has been documented as being subjected to intense and repeated shelling by forces of the interim authority.
