Aleppo: Syrian regime continues siege of Kurdish neighbourhoods as SDF retaliates in Qamishli

The Syrian regime continued a crushing siege of two Kurdish neighbourhoods in Syria's largest city of Aleppo for the twelfth day running on Tuesday.

The Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiya neighbourhoods, controlled by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), have been blockaded by the regime of President Bashar al-Assad as part of an operation that has seen restrictions on life there for over a month.

The SDF and allied police from the Kurdish-run Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES) retaliated by taking control of areas controlled by the regime in the city centre of Qamishli in northeastern Syria on Thursday.

However they withdrew soon afterwards.

But The New Arab's Arabic language service on Monday reported an SDF-aligned source as saying that Kurdish-led forces had removed regime checkpoints from the centre of Qamishli, which is located in Hasakah province.

The SDF earlier this month seized regime bakeries in Hasakah province, in a move seen as an attempt to pressure the regime to end its blockade in Aleppo.

A source in one of the besieged Aleppo neighbourhoods told The New Arab's Arabic-language service that the SDF and the regime are both responsible for the residents' misery.

They added that there were protests on Monday against the regime calling for an end to the blockade, which has caused prices to skyrocket by between 60 and 100 percent, in addition to demonstrations against the SDF.

Activists called on Turkish authorities to stop using administrative detention to pressure refugees to sign "voluntary return" documents and deport them to Syria.
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Limited quantities of food, medical and industrial supplies are being allowed into Sheikh Maqsoud and Ahsrafiya by the regime, though there are high costs attached, according to the source.

For over two weeks, only small amounts of flour and fuel have been let into Sheikh Maqsoud, leading to a rise in bread prices while many bakeries have stopped work.

Bakery owners have warned that flour reserves are almost gone.

The AANES on Monday accused the regime of stopping medicines from reaching the two neighbourhoods or making them exceedingly expensive.