AFP Asia Business

Clashes between government troops and Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria’s Aleppo killed at least nine people on Tuesday, mostly civilians, in one of the worst flare-ups between the sides in months. The implementation of a March deal to merge the Kurds’ semi-autonomous administration and military into Syria’s new Islamist government has largely stalled.Tensions have occasionally erupted into clashes, particularly in Aleppo, which has two Kurdish-majority neighbourhoods.Both sides traded blame over who started Tuesday’s fighting, which continued into the night and is among the deadliest violence between the government and Kurdish forces since the toppling of Bashar al-Assad more than a year ago. It also adds to concerns about progress on the integration deal.On Tuesday morning, the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said factions affiliated with the government “targeted the Sheikh Maqsud neighbourhood”.By evening, the SDF said the death toll in the Kurdish-majority Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh districts had risen to four civilians including two women and a child.It reported “indiscriminate artillery and missile shelling” on the areas, including “the use of drones… direct sniper fire and heavy-weapon fire”.Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh have remained under the control of Kurdish units linked to the SDF, despite Kurdish fighters agreeing to withdraw from the areas in April.- Stalled integration -In a statement carried by state news agency SANA, the defence ministry said the SDF targeted “a number of neighbourhoods in Aleppo city adjacent to the districts it controls”.SANA reported five people killed by SDF fire — four civilians including a child, in addition to a member of the defence ministry personnel.The agriculture ministry said two of the dead were workers at a research centre.”The SDF is again proving that it does not recognise the March 10 agreement and is trying to undermine it,” the defence ministry said.Civil aviation authorities announced “the suspension of flights to and from Aleppo airport for 24 hours and their diversion to Damascus airport” due to the violence, SANA reported.Governor Azzam al-Gharib announced schools, universities and government offices in Aleppo city would be closed on Wednesday and public events cancelled, citing “the current situation and the targeting of several hospitals and institutions by indiscriminate SDF artillery shelling”.The SDF controls swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast, and supported by a US-led international coalition was key to the territorial defeat of the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019.The March agreement on its integration into the state was supposed to be implemented by the end of 2025.- ‘Lay down’ weapons -In Ankara, Turkish Defence Minister Yasar Guler said “the PKK (the Kurdistan Workers’ Party) and all affiliated groups must immediately cease all terrorist activity in regions where they are present, including in Syria, and lay down their weapons without condition”.The SDF is dominated by the People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militant group seen by Ankara as an extension of the PKK, which earlier this year agreed to end its four-decade armed struggle against Turkey.”We will not allow any terrorist organisation — particularly the PKK, the PYD, the YPG, and the SDF — to establish a foothold in the region,” Guler added.A close ally of the new authorities, Turkey shares a 900-kilometre (550-mile) border with Syria and has launched successive offensives to push Kurdish forces from its frontier.Also on Tuesday, the SDF accused factions affiliated with Syria’s army of attacking Deir Hafer, around 50 kilometres (30 miles) east of Aleppo, and near the strategic Tishreen Dam to the city’s northeast.The Kurdish-led force affirmed its right to “respond legitimately to these attacks”.On Sunday, SDF chief Mazloum Abdi held further talks with officials in Damascus on integrating the Kurdish-led forces, but state media reported no tangible results.The Kurds are pushing for decentralised rule, an idea which Syria’s new Islamist authorities have rejected.Last month in Aleppo, clashes killed five people, while Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan urged the SDF not to be an obstacle to Syria’s stability.

One person was killed and three were injured during a protest in Jerusalem on Tuesday against a law to conscript ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israeli armed forces, emergency crews said.A bus ran over and injured three pedestrians then drove on and struck an 18-year old who got trapped under the vehicle, rescuers said.the Magen David Adom emergency service said”Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene,” the agency said.Thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews had taken to the streets of to protest a law to conscript them to the army, as the military faces manpower shortages after two years of war on multiple fronts.Mass demonstrations against the law have been taking place on a regular basis in recent months. According to a police statement, Tuesday’s protest turned violent after “a small group of rioters began violently disturbing public order, including by blocking traffic routes, damaging buses, setting trash bins on fire, throwing objects and eggs at police officers and Border Police, shouting invective, and assaulting journalists working at the scene”.The police added that the bus “was blocked by rioters who were… obstructing the route”. The driver was arrested and under questioning alleged “that he was assaulted by rioters, after which the unfortunate incident occurred”.Israeli police sources quoted by local media ruled out concerns the event was a terror attack. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been under pressure from the opposition and some coalition partners to increase the number of military recruits, but ultra-Orthodox party leaders — traditionally Netanyahu allies — oppose the conscription of religious students, who form a large part of their constituency.Under a ruling established at the time of Israel’s creation in 1948, men who devote themselves full-time to studying Jewish texts are given a de facto pass from mandatory military service.But this exemption has come under mounting scrutiny from the rest of Israeli society — particularly when tens of thousands of conscripts and reservists are mobilised on several fronts, despite the fragile truce that has ended the war in Gaza.The ultra-Orthodox make up 14 percent of Israel’s Jewish population.Keeping ultra-Orthodox parties on board is key to the survival of Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition.In November, a new draft law was put forward in the parliament’s foreign affairs and defence committee, after a previous conscription bill was voted down in July. The ultra-Orthodox United Torah Judaism party quit the government over that bill, and now Netanyahu’s coalition only holds 60 out of 120 seats in parliament.Ministers from the other main ultra-Orthodox party, Shas, resigned from the cabinet over the issue, though the party has not formally left the coalition.In late October, a teenage boy fell to his death from a high-rise during another mass protest against the conscription law in Jerusalem. Israeli media said his death was likely to be a suicide, as the boy had left a farewell message on his Instagram account.

Syria’s new government and Israel will set up a joint group under US supervision to share intelligence and seek military de-escalation on the ground, they announced Tuesday after talks.The Syrian foreign minister traveled to Paris in his country’s first known meeting in months with Israel, which has pounded its historic adversary despite US unease over the pressure on the fragile government.A joint statement issued by the US State Department after the talks in the French capital said that Syria and Israel were committed to “achieving lasting security and stability arrangements for both countries.””Both sides have decided to establish a joint fusion mechanism — a dedicated communication cell — to facilitate immediate and ongoing coordination on their intelligence sharing, military de-escalation, diplomatic engagement and commercial opportunities under the supervision of the United States,” the statement said.”This mechanism will serve as a platform to address any disputes promptly and work to prevent misunderstandings.”The statement did not say Israel would refrain from further strikes or restore an agreement that was previously in place.- Israeli strikes -Israel has no diplomatic relations with Syria, which during the half-century of rule by the Assad family publicly championed the Palestinian cause and was the Arab world’s key ally of Iran’s clerical state, Israel’s arch-enemy.Bashar al-Assad was ousted in a lightning offensive in December 2024 by Ahmed al-Sharaa, a former jihadist, after more than a decade of brutal civil war.President Donald Trump has met and praised Sharaa, now the interim president and an ally of Saudi Arabia and Turkey, brushing aside Israeli skepticism.The talks in Paris were mediated by Tom Barrack, a Trump business friend who is ambassador to Turkey and an outspoken advocate of supporting Sharaa.The United States recently fully removed remaining sanctions on Syria, hoping to give the country a chance to integrate into the global economy.Since Assad’s fall, Israel sent troops into a UN-patrolled buffer zone that had separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the Golan Heights, which Israel captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.Israel, saying there was a power vacuum, also unilaterally declared void a 1974 disengagement agreement with Syria that had kept in effect a ceasefire.Sharaa has sought to restore the agreement and avoid wider conflict with Israel, but he has also opposed Israel’s insistence on maintaining a demilitarized zone in southern Syria.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office called for economic cooperation with Syria and “regional stability and security.””It was agreed to continue the dialogue to advance shared objectives and safeguard the security of the Druze minority in Syria,” it said.Israel has cited violence against the Druze, who also have a presence inside Israel, as a reason to intervene in Syria.Israel in July launched massive air strikes, including hitting the defense ministry in Damascus, leading some analysts to believe it was hoping to degrade military capacities of Syria while it was at a weak point.