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Syria’s military warned civilians in two besieged Kurdish neighbourhoods in the city of Aleppo to leave on Thursday, as it prepared to conduct a fresh wave of strikes targeting Kurdish positions.Thousands have already fled the area following clashes between the army and Kurdish-led forces that have killed more than a dozen people.The violence comes as the two sides struggle to implement a March deal to merge a semi-autonomous administration and military run by the Kurds in Syria’s north into the country’s new Islamist government.Shops, universities and schools were closed for a second consecutive day in Aleppo on Thursday, according to AFP correspondents on the ground.The violence erupted on Tuesday and have left 17 people dead. On Wednesday, thousands of civilians fled the two Kurdish neighbourhoods of Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh via two corridors set up by the army, which then went on to shell the areas after an evacuation deadline.On Thursday, the authorities again announced that civilians would be able to leave before 1:00 pm (1000 GMT), with the army warning that it would resume bombardment half an hour after that deadline expired.- ‘No to war’ -A military official on the ground told AFP on Wednesday that the army’s operation was “limited” and aimed at “pressuring the Kurdish fighters to leave the area so that the authorities could extend their control over the entire city”. In Qamishli, the main city of Syria’s Kurdish areas in the northeast, hundreds of people demonstrated on Thursday against the Aleppo violence, according to AFP correspondents. “We call on the international community to intervene,” said one protester, 61-year-old Salaheddine Cheikhmous. Others held banners that read “no to war” and “no to ethnic cleansing”.UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Wednesday urged both sides to show restraint and swiftly resume negotiations to implement the March agreement, according to spokesman Stephane Dujarric. In Israel, the foreign minister Gideon Saar condemned what he called “serious and dangerous” attacks against the Kurdish minority. In July, Israel bombed Damascus during violence between the Islamist authorities and the Druze minority in southern Syria, saying it wanted to protect the community, many of whose members live in Israel.Turkey, a close ally of the new Syrian government, said it was ready to support the Syrian government in its battle with the Kurdish fighters if Damascus asks for help.

Security forces used tear gas to disperse protesters in Iran as people angered by the economic situation in the Islamic republic kept up their challenge to the authorities and the exiled opposition Thursday urged them to step up their actions.The 12 days of protests have shaken the clerical authorities under Ayatollah Ali Khamenei already battling economic crisis after years of sanctions and recovering after the June war against Israel.The movement, which originated with a shutdown on the Tehran bazaar on December 28 after the rial plunged to record lows, has spread nationwide and is now being marked by larger scale demonstrations.Authorities have blamed unrest on “rioters” and the judiciary chief has vowed there would be “no leniency” in bringing them to justice. On Wednesday, an Iranian police officer was stabbed to death near Tehran “during efforts to control unrest”, the Iranian Fars news agency said.Reza Pahlavi, the son of the shah ousted by the 1979 Islamic revolution and a key exiled opposition figure, said that the turnout during Wednesday’s protests had been “unprecedented” and called for major new protests Thursday evening.He said in a message on social media he had received reports the “regime is deeply frightened and is attempting, once again, to cut off the internet” to thwart the protests.The HRANA monitor published a video of protesters in Kuhchenar in the southern Fars province cheering overnight as they pulled down a statue of the former foreign operations commander of the Revolutionary Guards Qassem Soleimani who was killed in a US strike in January 2020 and is hailed as a national hero by the Islamic republic.HRANA said according to its count protests had taken place in 348 locations over the last 11 days in all of Iran’s 31 provinces.It also published a video of people massing late at night in the Tehran satellite city of Karaj and lighting fires in the streets and also images of security forces using tear gas to disperse a protest in the Caspian Sea town of Tonekabon.The Norway-based Iran Human Rights group said security forces on Wednesday “opened fire on protesters, used tear gas and violently assaulted civilians” during a protest in the key southeastern hub of Kerman.The protests are being characterised by larger-scale demonstrations, with hundreds marching through a main avenue in the northeastern city of Bojnord on Wednesday in a video verified by AFP.Demonstrators are repeating slogans against the clerical leadership including “this is the final battle, Pahlavi will return” and “Seyyed Ali will be toppled”, in reference to Khamenei.IHR said on Tuesday at least 27 protesters including five teenagers under the age of 18, have been confirmed to have been killed in a crackdown on the protests, warning the death toll will climb as more killings are verified.