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Syria’s government on Wednesday demanded that Kurdish fighters leave the neighbourhoods they control in Aleppo following clashes between the two sides which saw thousands of civilians flee.The Syrian government and Kurdish-led forces traded blame over who started the deadly clashes on Tuesday, which killed 16 civilians and one defence ministry member.The violence comes as the two sides have so far failed to implement a March deal to merge the Kurds’ semi-autonomous administration and military into Syria’s new Islamist government.In a statement, the government expressed its “demand for the withdrawal of armed groups from the Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh neighbourhoods”.The Syrian military shelled the neighbourhoods after declaring them “closed military zones” from 1200 GMT.An AFP correspondent reported that the intensity of the bombardment had decreased by Wednesday evening but tanks and soldiers remained deployed around the areas.A military source at the scene told AFP the ongoing operation was “limited” and aimed at “pressuring Kurdish fighters in the two neighbourhoods to leave the area so the authorities can extend their control to the entire city”.The army said it had established two “humanitarian crossings” and AFP correspondents saw thousands of civilians use them to flee with their belongings, some of them in tears.Later, the Syrian civil defence agency said they had evacuated “more than 3,000 civilians”, mostly from the two neighbourhoods.”We fled the clashes and we don’t know where to go… Fourteen years of war, I think that’s enough,” Ahmed, a 38-year-old man who only gave his first name, told AFP while carrying his son on his back.Ammar Raji, 41, said he and his family were “forced to leave because of the difficult circumstances”.”I have six children, including two young ones… I am worried we will not return,” Raji, who had previously escaped fighting in his northern hometown of Manbij six years ago, added.- ‘Path of reason’ -Earlier on Wednesday, the Syrian army said that “all Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) military positions within the Sheikh Maqsud and Ashrafiyeh neighbourhoods of Aleppo are legitimate military targets”, referring to the Kurdish-led force.Senior Kurdish official Ilham Ahmed accused Damascus of launching a “genocidal war” against the Kurds, calling on the Syrian government to “pursue a path of reason to resolve problems through dialogue”.The March agreement on the Kurdish authority’s integration into the state was supposed to be implemented by the end of 2025.The Kurds are pushing for decentralised rule, an idea which Syria’s new authorities have rejected.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.In a statement, the SDF insisted that they had no presence in the neighbourhoods, and that the areas “do not pose a military threat in any way”.The Kurdish-led force called on Damascus to “immediately halt the siege, bombardment and military offensive targeting innocent civilians”.”The continuation of this aggression… could turn all of Syria into an open battlefield again.”Syrian authorities on their end accused the SDF of bombarding government-controlled areas.Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, on Wednesday said: “We call on all actors to immediately deescalate, exercise maximum restraint and take all measures to prevent further harm to civilians.”He called for “flexibility and goodwill” and the prompt resumption of negotiations to implement the March deal.- ‘Nowhere else to go’ -Schools, universities and government offices in the city were shut down on Wednesday, and authorities announced the suspension of flights to and from Aleppo airport until Thursday evening.Joud Serjian, a 53-year-old housewife and resident of the government-controlled Syriac Quarter, said the violence “reminded us of the war”.”We have nowhere else to go, so we’ll stay in our home,” she added.The SDF controls swathes of Syria’s north and northeast, with the backing of a US-led international coalition, and was key to the territorial defeat of the Islamic State group in Syria in 2019.During the Syrian civil war, Aleppo was the scene of fierce fighting between rebels and forces of ousted president Bashar al-Assad before he regained control of the city in 2016.Assad was ousted in a lightning Islamist-led offensive in 2024.Despite assurances from Damascus that all of Syria’s communities will be protected, minorities remain wary of their future under the new authorities.Last year, flare-ups of sectarian violence in the Alawite heartland on the Mediterranean coast and in Druze-majority Sweida province killed hundreds of members of the minority communities.

A Saudi-led coalition struck the home province of Yemen’s UAE-backed separatist leader on Wednesday, after he failed to show up for talks in Riyadh and was kicked out of the country’s presidential body.The coalition said it had given Aidaros Alzubidi a 48-hour ultimatum to come to Riyadh for discussions, after his Southern Transitional Council (STC) grabbed swathes of territory last month. But he failed to board the flight carrying his delegation, and the coalition struck his home province of al-Dhale after accusing him of mobilising “large forces” there.The separatists later said that the delegation they sent to Riyadh had been detained by the Saudi authorities.Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, which holds executive power and includes rival UAE- and Saudi-backed figures, announced Alzubidi’s removal, accusing him of high treason.The showdown between Yemen’s rival factions has raised fears that its second city, Aden, where the STC insisted its leader was still located, could be drawn into the violence.The STC’s advance and the Saudi response have also sent relations with the United Arab Emirates, a fellow oil power and rival powerbroker in Yemen, plummeting.The Saudi-led coalition and allied Yemeni forces have in recent days rolled back the STC’s territorial advances.On Wednesday, the separatists announced a nighttime curfew in Aden, the capital of government-controlled areas and an STC stronghold, amid fears of clashes with Saudi-backed forces.- ‘Arbitrarily detained’ -“More than 50 STC officials have been arbitrarily detained and taken to an unknown location by the Saudis. We call on their immediate release and put the onus on Saudi Arabia for their safety,” the group said in a statement.An STC official told AFP that Alzubidi decided not to join the delegation flying to Saudi Arabia for talks after hearing he would be asked to dissolve his group, which forms part of the Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) governing government-held Yemen.Alzubidi “continues his duties” in Aden, the group said, calling on the Saudi-led coalition to halt the air strikes.Coalition spokesperson Major General Turki al-Maliki, meanwhile, said Alzubidi “fled to an unknown location… after he had distributed weapons and ammunition to dozens of elements inside Aden”.The coalition carried out strikes to prevent Alzubidi from “escalating the conflict” and extending it into Dhale governorate, he said.More than 15 air strikes hit Dhale, a local official told AFP, killing four people, according to two hospital sources.- ‘Grave crimes’ -The PLC announced Alzubidi’s removal, accusing him of committing several crimes, including “high treason” and “engaging in armed insurgency”.”It has been established that (Alzubidi) has abused the just cause of the South and exploited it to commit grave crimes against civilians in the southern governorates,” it said.More than 100 people have been killed in the Saudi-led coalition’s strikes on the separatists’ positions and in clashes on the ground.The Saudis and Emiratis have long supported rival factions in Yemen’s fractious government, after they had initially joined forces in the Saudi-led military coalition against the Houthis.The coalition and another Saudi-backed group said it has asked STC deputy Abdulrahman al-Mahrami, who is in Riyadh and approved Alzubidi’s dismissal from the presidency, to “enforce security and prevent hostilities in Aden”.A security official in Aden told AFP that the forces loyal to Mahrami have been deployed in the streets and government buildings, including the presidential palace.Mahrami later announced there would be a 9:00 pm to 6:00 am (1800 GMT to 0300 GMT) curfew in the city.A military source in Shabwa province told AFP that units of the Saudi-backed National Shield forces had arrived in Ataq city and were heading towards Aden. Aden is an STC stronghold and home to the group’s headquarters.After the Iran-backed Houthis seized Sanaa in 2014, it became the government’s self-proclaimed temporary capital.As the civil war progressed, the STC’s political and military influence expanded across south Yemen and they became a dominant force in Aden.Another security official told AFP that two days ago, the STC evacuated its headquarters in Aden and moved the operations of its TV channel to an unknown location for fear of Saudi bombing. Last week, Alzubidi had announced a two-year transition towards creating a new country, “South Arabia”, in Yemen’s south.

The United Nations on Wednesday said decades-long discrimination and segregation of Palestinians by Israel in the West Bank were intensifying, and called on the country to end its “apartheid system”.In a new report, slammed by Israel, the UN rights office said “systematic discrimination” against Palestinians across the occupied Palestinian territories had “drastically deteriorated” in recent years.”There is a systematic asphyxiation of the rights of Palestinians in the West Bank,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said in a statement.”Whether accessing water, school, rushing to hospital, visiting family or friends, or harvesting olives –- every aspect of life for Palestinians in the West Bank is controlled and curtailed by Israel’s discriminatory laws, policies and practices,” he added.”This is a particularly severe form of racial discrimination and segregation, that resembles the kind of apartheid system we have seen before.”A number of independent experts affiliated with the UN have described the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories as “apartheid” but this marks the first time a UN rights chief has applied the term.Israel’s diplomatic mission to the UN in Geneva slammed the report’s “absurd and distorted accusations of racial discrimination” against Israel, charging it exemplified the UN rights office’s “inherently politically driven fixation … on vilifying Israel”.- Mounting settler violence -The report said the Israeli authorities “treat Israeli settlers and Palestinians residing in the West Bank under two distinct bodies of law and policies, resulting in unequal treatment on a range of critical issues”.”Palestinians continue to be subjected to large-scale confiscation of land and deprivation of access to resources,” it added.This had led to “dispossessing them of their lands and homes, alongside other forms of systemic discrimination, including criminal prosecution in military courts during which their due process and fair trial rights are systematically violated”. Turk demanded Wednesday that Israel “repeal all laws, policies and practices that perpetuate systemic discrimination against Palestinians based on race, religion or ethnic origin”.The discrimination was compounded by continuing and escalating settler violence, in many cases “with the acquiescence, support and participation of Israel’s security forces”, the rights office said.More than 500,000 Israelis currently live in settlements in the West Bank, occupied since 1967 and home to around three million Palestinians.Violence has risen in recent years, surging especially since Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack, which triggered the Gaza war.Since the start of the war, Israeli troops and settlers have killed more than 1,000 Palestinians in the West Bank, including many militants as well as dozens of civilians, according to an AFP tally based on figures from the Palestinian health ministry.According to official Israeli figures, at least 44 Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, have been killed in Palestinian attacks or Israeli military operations in the same period.- ‘Almost complete impunity’ -Since the Gaza war began, Israeli authorities had also “further expanded the use of unlawful force, arbitrary detention and torture”, the report said.Increased “repression of civil society and undue restrictions on media freedoms (and) severe movement restrictions” had also characterised “an unprecedented deterioration of the human rights situation” in the West Bank, it said.There had also been rapid expansions of settlements, considered illegal under international law, even as unlawful killings of Palestinians were taking place “with almost complete impunity”, the report warned.Of the more than 1,500 killings of Palestinians that took place between the start of 2017 and September 30 last year, Israeli authorities had opened just 112 investigations, resulting in only one conviction, it pointed out.  The report said it had found “reasonable grounds to believe that this separation, segregation, and subordination is intended to be permanent… to maintain oppression and domination of Palestinians”.This, it stressed, amounts to a violation of an international anti-racism convention, “which prohibits racial segregation and apartheid”.The UN rights office on Wednesday urged Israel to end its “unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, including by dismantling all settlements and evacuating all settlers, and to respect the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination”.