Trump urges ‘peace’ as ceasefire implodes and hospital bombed in Syria | World | News

US President Donald Trump has said he wants to “see peace” after Syrian government forces launched a brutal attack on civilian ethnic Kurdish neighbourhoods. Violence has erupted in the Syrian city of Aleppo affecting the largely ethnic Kurdish civilian neighbourhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafieh and Al-Suryan, home to around 500,000 people.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Defence Force (SDF), which has been a long-time ally of British forces during the war against Isis in the region, said at least 18 civilians, including children, had been killed and more than 60 had been injured. In footage obtained by the Daily Express, columns of tanks and pick-ups carrying armed militias affiliated with the Syrian government were seen entering the civilian areas of Aleppo earlier this week on January 6.

Drones and artillery have been used in the fighting, and there have been street battles between government forces and locals who have taken up arms to repel the attack. The Daily Express has been sent images from inside a hospital in the Kurdish area of Aleppo where casualties can be seen on stretchers and children and families are sheltering in stairwells.

The bloodshed and violence will be embarrassing for London and Washington who have sought to normalise relations with the newly formed so-called Syrian Arab Republic, led by former Al-Qaeda jihadi-turned president, Ahmed al-Sharaa. The leadership in the Syrian capital Damascus under al-Sharaa had signed a deal in March last year with the SDF, which controls much of the northeast of the country, for it to merge with the Syrian army by the end of 2025.

Speaking in the White House, where he welcomed the Syrian leader Al-Sharaa in November, Trump said he wanted to “see peace” and an end to the fighting. He added: “The Kurds and the Syrian government, we get along with both, as you know very well. They have been natural enemies over the years, but we get along with both.”

British Middle East minister Hamish Falconer met with his Syrian counterparts at a much-trumpeted re-opening of the Syrian Embassy in London, also in November. Coordination and intelligence with SDF forces, who run the mostly autonomous north east region of Syria, known as Rojava, will most likely have helped British and French air strikes on Isis targets just days ago and the US CENTCOM Middle East military branch still supports Kurdish forces running detention camps which hold former Islamic State prisoners, including Shamima Begum.

The Daily Express has contacted the Foreign Office for comment, but in a previous statement on January 7 the department said: “We are deeply concerned by the clashes in northern Aleppo, and the civilian casualties and displacement they have caused.

“A stable Syria is not just vital for the region, but firmly in the UK’s interests, and that is why we want to see immediate progress made to de-escalate these tensions, resume peaceful dialogue, and ensure the protection of civilians. We will continue to monitor the situation closely.”

Reacting to Syrian army claims hospitals were being used to house fighters, the SDF said: “We categorically reject this claim in its entirety, as it represents a transparent attempt by these militias to distort the facts.

“We call upon independent international human rights committees to visit the hospital and directly observe the on-the-ground reality. The militias are using these allegations to justify their crimes against wounded civilians, women, and children inside the hospital, and to evade accountability for the crimes they have committed during their barbaric campaign, which continues for the fifth consecutive day.”

The violence by Arab-led Syrian forces on an ethnic minority in the country echo similar attacks on the Druze and Alawite communities since Al-Sharaa came to power in December 2024.

Syrian government Minister for Information Hamza al-Mustafa claimed the latest military action was against “armed groups” and “affiliated with the SDF”. In a post on X he claimed civilian facilities had been turned “into military strongholds”.

Before the latest ceasefire collapsed, Mr al-Mustafa said: “The government holds the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) responsible for the current instability, asserting that their breach of the April 1 agreement directly led to renewed chaos, military escalation, and the collapse of previous understandings.”

Both Al-Sharaa and the SDF leader Mazloum Abdi previously signed the US-backed March 10 agreement in 2025, which laid out a ceasefire between the two sides and called for eventual integration of the SDF Kurdish-led Democratic Autonomous-Administration of North and East Syria (DAANES) into the new Syrian government. The leadership of the two factions met again for talks on January 4.

in a strongly worded statement to the Daily Express, DAANES said it had “deep concern” and issued “strong condemnation of the siege imposed on the neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh in the city of Aleppo”

It added: “These irresponsible practices only contribute to further fragmentation of the Syrian national forces, clearly revealing the lack of seriousness on the part of the Syrian government in its declared efforts to unite the Syrian people and build a democratic state where all citizens are equal in rights and duties, without discrimination or exclusion.

“The Autonomous-Administration warns that the continuation of this escalatory approach will have dire consequences that will affect all of Syria, as it carries the risks of expanding violence and deepening the rift between the components of Syrian society.”