Residents remove rubble from damaged buildings in the al-Hajar al-Aswad neighbourhood on the outskirts of Damascus, Syria. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Syria’s Army said its operation in a Kurdish neighbourhood of Aleppo was nearing completion on early Saturday (January 10, 2026) and urged fighters from the minority to surrender themselves and their weapons.

Government forces began striking the Sheikh Maqsud district overnight after the Kurdish fighters defied a deadline to withdraw during a temporary ceasefire.

A military source told the official SANA news agency that the combing operation in Sheikh Maqsud was “more than 90%” complete, and that “a number of SDF members” had been arrested.

In a statement posted by the Ministry of Defence, Syria’s Army said “the only remaining option for the armed elements in the Sheikh Maqsud area of Aleppo is to surrender themselves and their weapons immediately”.

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

Since the start of the fighting on Tuesday (January 6, 2026), at least 21 civilians have been killed, according to figures from both sides, and tens of thousands have fled Aleppo.

The clashes, some of the most intense since Syria’s new Islamist authorities took power, present yet another challenge as the country struggles to reunify after ousting longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad in December 2024. Both sides blame the other for starting the violence.

On Friday (January 9, 2026), Syrian authorities announced a six-hour window for the Kurdish fighters to leave, but they instead refused to “surrender” and vowed to defend their districts.

In response, Syria’s Army warned it would renew strikes on military targets in Sheikh Maqsud and urged civilians to get out ahead of the district’s takeover by security forces.

An AFP correspondent saw residents laden with belongings fleeing before the two-hour humanitarian corridor closed.

Kurdish forces reported coming under artillery and drone attacks and claimed in a post on social media to be mounting a “fierce and ongoing resistance”.

The Army said three soldiers had been killed by Kurdish forces, while state television accused them of launching drones on residential areas of Aleppo. A flight suspension at Aleppo airport was extended until late Saturday (January 10, 2026).

The SDF controls swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast, and was key to the defeat of the Islamic State group in 2019.

But Ankara views its main component as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which agreed last year to end its four-decade armed struggle against Turkey.

Elham Ahmad, a senior official in the Kurdish administration in Syria’s northeast, accused Syria’s authorities of “choosing the path of war” by attacking Kurdish districts and of “seeking to put an end to the agreements that have been reached”. “We are committed to them and we are seeking to implement them,” she told AFP.

The March integration agreement was meant to be implemented last year, but differences, including Kurdish demands for decentralised rule, have stymied progress.

Mr. Ahmad said that “the United States is playing a mediating role… we hope they will apply pressure to reach an agreement”. A diplomatic source told AFP that U.S. envoy Tom Barrack was headed to Damascus.

Turkey, which shares a 900-km (550-mile) border with Syria, has launched successive offensives to push Kurdish forces from the frontier.

“Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa discussed the situation in a call with Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and said he was determined to “end the illegal armed presence” in the city,” a Syrian presidency statement said.

UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric expressed alarm over the impact of the fighting on civilians and called on all parties “to swiftly return to negotiations to ensure the full implementation of the 10 March agreement”.

Nanar Hawach, senior Syria analyst at the International Crisis Group, said the renewed clashes cast doubt on the government’s ability to gain the trust of minority factions and sow the country back together after 14 years of civil war.

“If the fighting escalates, international actors will wonder about Damascus’s capacity to govern Syria’s heterogeneous society,” he added.

Syria’s authorities have committed to protecting minorities, but sectarian bloodshed rocked the Alawite and Druze communities last year.

Published – January 10, 2026 11:27 am IST

An independence-era Syrian flag and an Islamic black-and-white flag bearing the Shahada (the creed stating a belief in one god and the acceptance that Mohammed was God’s prophet) hang above a stall at the covered Hamidiya market in the old city of Damascus on January 1, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Saudi Arabia on Wednesday (January 1, 2025) launched a humanitarian air bridge to Syria, delivering food, shelter and medical supplies, the official Saudi Press Agency reported.

The air bridge, established by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief), aims to “alleviate the effects of the difficult conditions currently facing the Syrian people”, SPA said.

What’s happening in Syria? Explained

Others, including the European Union and Ukraine, have also announced aid for Syria, where the United Nations said seven out of 10 people need support.

Riyadh’s air bridge will “be followed by another land bridge in the coming days,” said Abdullah al-Rabeeah, the head of KSrelief, SPA reported.

Syria has been devastated by 13 years of civil war as well as Western sanctions targeting the government of deposed president Bashar al-Assad.

Millions have been displaced while the economy and civil infrastructure are in tatters, with a World Health Organisation analyst saying last week that approximately half of the country’s hospitals are out of service.

A source close to the Saudi government earlier said a high-ranking Saudi delegation had visited Damascus and met Syria’s new leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham led the overthrow of Assad on December 8, after a lightning offensive.

Riyadh previously sent aid to Syria after a devastating February 2023 earthquake.

Damascus:

Syria’s new interior minister said Wednesday that 14 personnel were killed by “remnants” of toppled leader Bashar al-Assad’s “regime” in Tartus province, after a war monitor reported deadly clashes in the region.

Interior Minister Mohammed Abdel Rahman said in a statement that “14 interior ministry personnel were killed and 10 others wounded after… a treacherous ambush by remnants of the criminal regime” in Tartus province “while performing their tasks of maintaining security and safety”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Cairo, Egypt:

A lightning rebel offensive early this month caught Syria’s ruling clan off guard.

President Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia on December 8, leaving behind many of his collaborators, some of whom sought refuge in neighbouring countries.

According to two sources, the ousted president, who fled to Moscow via the Russian military airfield in Hmeimim on Syria’s coast, was accompanied by only a handful of confidants.

Among them were his closet ally, the secretary-general of presidential affairs Mansour Azzam, as well as his economic adviser Yassar Ibrahim, who oversees the financial empire of Assad and his wife, Asma.

“He left with his secretary and his treasurer,” an insider who requested anonymity said, mockingly.

Bashar’s brother, Maher al-Assad, commander of the elite Fourth Division tasked with defending Damascus, did not know about his sibling’s plans.

Leaving his men stranded, Maher took a separate route, fleeing by helicopter to Iraq before travelling to Russia, according to a Syrian military source.

An Iraqi security source told AFP that Maher arrived in Iraq by plane on December 7 and stayed there for five days.

Maher’s wife, Manal al-Jadaan and his son briefly entered Lebanon before departing through Beirut airport, said Lebanese Interior Minister Bassam Mawlawi, without disclosing their final destination.

Another Assad government heavyweight, Ali Mamlouk, the former chief of Syria’s security apparatus, fled to Russia via Iraq, said a Syrian military source.

His son passed through Lebanon before leaving for another destination, according to a Lebanese security source.

‘Wanted’

The Iraqi Interior Ministry denied on Monday the presence of either Maher al-Assad or Mamlouk in Iraq.

Both are wanted men.

Maher – and Bashar al-Assad – are wanted by France for alleged complicity in war crimes over chemical attacks in Syria in August 2013.

The French courts have already sentenced Mamlouk and Jamil Hassan, former head of Syria’s Air Force Intelligence, in absentia to life imprisonment for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes.

On Friday, the Lebanese authorities received an Interpol alert relaying a US request to arrest Hassan and hand him over to the US authorities, should he enter the country.

The United States accuses Hassan of “war crimes”, including overseeing barrel bomb attacks on Syrian people that killed thousands of civilians.

A Lebanese judicial source told AFP that they had no confirmation of Hassan’s presence in Lebanon, but assured that he would be detained if found.

Last-minute escapes

Other prominent figures also made hasty escapes.

Bouthaina Shaaban, former translator for Hafez al-Assad – Bashar’s father who founded the brutal system of government his son inherited – fled to Lebanon on the night of December 7-8.

Shaaban, Bashar al-Assad’s long-time political adviser, then travelled to Abu Dhabi, according to a friend in Beirut.

Kifah Mujahid, head of the Baath Brigades – the military wing of Syria’s former ruling party – escaped to Lebanon by boat, a party source told AFP.

Other officials took refuge in their hometowns in Alawite regions, some of them told AFP. Assad hailed from Syria’s Alawite minority.

Not all escape attempts were successful.

Ihab Makhlouf, Bashar al-Assad’s cousin and a prominent businessman, was killed on December 7 while trying to flee Damascus.

His twin brother, Iyad, was injured in the same incident, said a military official from the former government.

Their elder sibling, Rami Makhlouf, once considered Syria’s richest man and a symbol of the regime’s corruption, managed to survive. Rami, who fell out of favour with the Assad regime years ago, is believed to be in the United Arab Emirates.

Several other figures close to Assad’s government crossed into Lebanon, according to a security source and a source in the business world. These included Ghassan Belal, head of Maher’s office, and businessmen Mohammed Hamsho, Khalid Qaddur, Samer Debs and Samir Hassan.

A former Lebanese minister with close ties to Syria said that several senior Syrian military officers were granted safe passage by the Russians to the Hmeimim airbase.

They were rewarded for instructing their troops not to resist the rebel offensive in order to avoid further bloodshed, he said.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Damascus:

Syria wants to contribute to “regional peace”, the country’s new authorities said late Friday, after a meeting between leader Ahmed al-Sharaa and a US diplomatic delegation.

“The Syrian side indicated that the Syrian people stand at an equal distance from all countries and parties in the region and that Syria rejects any polarisation,” the statement said.

It said the new authorities wanted to “affirm Syria’s role in promoting regional peace and building privileged strategic partnerships with countries in the region”.

A Syrian official had previously told AFP that the meeting between al-Sharaa — known previously by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani — and the US delegation led by Barbara Leaf, head of the Middle East at the State Department, was “positive”.

Al-Sharaa, the leader of the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group that seized power in Damascus, was previously the target of US sanctions.

But after their first formal contact in Damascus on Friday, Washington announced it had dropped a bounty for his arrest.

“Based on our discussion, I told him that we were dropping the offer of a reward,” Leaf told reporters.

She said she told the new Syrian leader of the “critical need to ensure that terrorist groups cannot pose a threat inside Syria or outside, including to the United States and our partners in the region”.

He “committed to doing so”, she said, adding he had appeared to her as “pragmatic”.

HTS, which leads the victorious coalition of armed groups in Damascus, claims to have broken with jihadism and has sought to reassure people of its ability to revive the country after nearly 14 years of civil war.

France, Germany, Britain, and the United Nations have also sent emissaries to Damascus in recent days to establish contacts with the new authorities.

The West is wary of the risk of fragmentation of the country and the resurgence of the jihadist group Islamic State, which has never been completely eradicated there.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin attends his annual end-of-year press conference and phone-in, in Moscow, Russia December 19, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday (December 19, 2024) that Russia had not been defeated in Syria and that Moscow had made proposals to the new rulers in Damascus to maintain Russia’s military bases there.

In his first public comments on the subject, Mr. Putin said he had not yet met former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad since was overthrown and forced to flee to Moscow earlier this month, but that he planned to do so.

In response to a question on the subject from a U.S. journalist, Mr. Putin said he would ask Assad about the fate of U.S. reporter Austin Tice, who is missing in Syria, and was ready to ask Syria’s new rulers about Tice’s whereabouts too.

“I will tell you frankly, I have not yet seen President Assad since he came to Moscow. But I plan to do so. I will definitely talk to him,” said Mr. Putin.

He said most people in Syria with whom Russia had been in contact about the future of its two main military bases in Syria were supportive of them staying, but that talks were ongoing.

Russia, which intervened in Syria in 2015 and turned the tide of the civil war there in Assad’s favour, had also told other countries that they could use its airbase and naval base to bring in humanitarian aid for Syria, he said.

“You want to portray everything that is happening in Syria as some kind of failure, a defeat for Russia. I assure you, it is not. And I’ll tell you why. We came to Syria 10 years ago to prevent a terrorist enclave from being created there,” said Mr. Putin.

“On the whole, we have achieved our goal. It is not for nothing that today many European countries and the United States want to establish relations with them [Syria’s new rulers]. If they are terrorist organisations, why are you [the West] going there? So that means they have changed.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, July 24, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Ousted Syrian leader Bashar Assad says he had no plans to leave the country after the fall of Damascus a week ago but the Russian military evacuated him after their base in western Syria came under attack.

The comments are the first by Assad since he was overthrown by insurgent groups.

Assad said in a statement on his Facebook page that he left Damascus on the morning of Dec 8, hours after insurgents stormed the capital. He said he left in coordination with Russian allies to the Russian base in the coastal province of Latakia, where he planned to keep fighting.

Assad said that after the Russian base came under attack by drones, the Russians decided to move him on the night of Dec 8 to Russia. “I did not leave the country as part of a plan as it was reported earlier,” Assad said.

“At no point during these events did I consider stepping down or seeking refuge nor was such proposal made by any individual or party,” Assad said in the English text of his statement. “The only course of action was to continue fighting against the terrorist onslaught.”

Ankara:

Turkey said Friday it had urged Russia and Iran not to intervene militarily to support Bashar al-Assad’s forces as Islamist-led rebels mounted their lightning advance on Damascus that ended with the Syrian strongman’s ouster.

“The most important thing was to talk to the Russians and Iranians to ensure that they didn’t enter the equation militarily. We had meetings with (them) and they understood,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told Turkey’s private NTV television.

He said if Moscow and Tehran, both key Assad allies since the start of the civil war in 2011, had come to the Syrian president’s aid, the rebels could still have won but the outcome could have been far more violent.

“If Assad had received support, the opposition could have achieved victory with their determination, but it would have taken a long time and could have been bloody,” he said.

Turkey’s aim was to “hold focused talks with the two important power players to ensure minimum loss of life,” Fidan said.

They quickly realised the game was up, that Assad “was no longer someone to invest in” and “there was no point anymore”, he added. a

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Washington:

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Thursday that Syrian civilians need to be protected after Ankara-backed Islamists overthrew the Damascus government.

The top US diplomat met late Thursday for more than an hour with Erdogan at a lounge at the airport of the capital Ankara, moments after the Turkish leader saw off Hungary’s nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orban.

Blinken “reiterated the importance of all actors in Syria respecting human rights, upholding international humanitarian law, and taking all feasible steps to protect civilians, including members of minority groups”, State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said in a statement.

Turkey has emphasised its security concerns following the upheaval in Syria, where it has been fighting a Kurdish-led force that Washington backs as a key player in the fight against Islamic State (IS) group jihadists.

After years of stalemate, the Islamist movement Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group last weekend toppled Syria’s iron-fisted leader Bashar al-Assad, a secular-oriented member of the minority Alawite community.

Blinken told Erdogan of “the need to ensure the coalition to defeat ISIS (IS) can continue to execute its critical mission”, Miller said.

Speaking before his departure to Turkey on a stop in Jordan, Blinken acknowledged “real and clear interests” by Turkey about the PKK, the Kurdish fighters that Ankara links to Syrian Kurdish guerrillas.

“At the same time, again, we want to avoid sparking any kinds of additional conflicts inside of Syria,” Blinken told reporters in Aqaba, Jordan.

“And part of that also has to be ensuring that ISIS doesn’t rear its ugly head again. And critical to making sure that doesn’t happen is the so-called SDF, the Syrian Democratic Forces, that we’ve been supporting,” he said, referring to the Kurdish-led forces.

Blinken, who leaves office next month following Donald Trump’s election victory, has called for an “inclusive” process to form Syria’s next government, with respect for all communities.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)