Syria government forces said to detain 300 Kurds, evacuate 400 fighters from Aleppo

By AFP 11 January 2026, 12:00 pm

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Syrian government security forces sit in the back of a pick-up truck deployed outside a church following a ceasefire in the city of Aleppo, Syria, early on January 11, 2026. (Bakr Alkasem / AFP)

Syrian government forces evacuated more than 400 Kurdish fighters from the last district in Aleppo to fall to the army, and detained 300 Kurds, an interior ministry official tells AFP.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, says “360 fighters and more than 59 wounded” were evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsud neighborhood to the Kurds’ de facto autonomous zone in the northeast, and 300 other Kurds, including members of the security forces, were detained.

An AFP correspondent reports buses filled with men leaving Sheikh Maqsud under escort by government forces during the night.