Syrian army and Kurdish forces exchange strikes in an area near Aleppo

ALEPPO, Syria (AP) - Syrian government forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces exchanged fire Tuesday in a tense area of eastern Aleppo province, marking a possible escalation after days of clashes in the country's largest second city.

No casualties were immediately reported, as an impasse continues in negotiations between the central government and the SDF over merging its thousands of fighters into the national army.

The Syrian army earlier declared an area east of Aleppo as a "closed military zone." Eastern Aleppo province has been a tense frontline dividing areas under the Syrian government and large swaths of northeastern Syria under the SDF.

In a statement, the SDF said government forces have started shelling Deir Hafer district. The group later said government troops launched exploding drones, artillery and rockets to a village south of Deir Hafer.

Syrian state television later said the SDF targeted the village of Homeima on the other side of the Deir Hafer frontline with exploding drones.

Several days of deadly clashes in Aleppo last week displaced tens of thousands of people. They ended over the weekend with the evacuation of Kurdish fighters from the contested neighborhood of Sheikh Maqsoud. Aleppo Governor Azzam Ghareeb said Damascus now has full control of Sheikh Maqsoud and Achrafieh, where clashes took place.

Syrian officials have accused the SDF of building up its forces near the towns of Maskana and Deir Hafer, about 60 kilometers (37 miles) east of Aleppo city. SANA, the state news agency, reported that the army had declared the area a closed military zone because of "continued mobilization" by the SDF, and accused the group of using the area as a launchpad for drone attacks in Aleppo city.

The army statement said the armed groups should withdraw east of the Euphrates River.

A drone hit the Aleppo governorate building on Saturday shortly after two Cabinet ministers and a local official held a news conference on the developments in the city.

The SDF have denied mobilizing in the area or being behind the attack.

The leadership in Damascus, under interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, signed a deal in March with the SDF, which controls much of the northeast, for it to merge with the Syrian army by the end of 2025. There have been disagreements on how it would happen.

Some of the factions that make up the new Syrian army, which was formed after the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a rebel offensive in December 2024, were previously Turkey-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.

The SDF for years has been the main U.S. partner in Syria in fighting against the Islamic State group, but Turkey considers the SDF a terrorist organization because of its association with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has waged a long-running insurgency in Turkey. A peace process is now underway.

Despite the long-running U.S. support for the SDF, the Trump administration has also developed close ties with al-Sharaa's government and has pushed the Kurds to implement the March deal.

The recent developments have left the SDF and the autonomous administration that runs northeastern Syria frustrated with Washington and accusing Damascus of not implementing its end of the deal.

"The American government needs to clarify its position of the Syrian government which is committing massacres," the administration's foreign relations official, Elham Ahmad, told journalists Tuesday. She accused government forces of committing "horrific violations" and alleged that forces affiliated with IS and foreign fighters took part in the clashes.

Shams TV, a broadcaster based in Irbil - the seat of northern Iraq's semi-autonomous Kurdish region - had been set to air an interview with al-Sharaa on Monday but later announced it had been postponed for "technical" reasons, without giving a new date for broadcast.