Sheikh Maqsood (, , ), sometimes spelled al-Sheikh Maqsoud, Maqsud or Maksud, is a Kurdish-majority neighborhood in the city of

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

Syria Syria, officially the Syrian Arab Republic, is a country in West Asia located in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the west, Turkey to Syria–Turkey border, the north, Iraq to Iraq–Syria border, t ...

Syrian Civil War

During the Syrian Civil War, the Kurdish-majority People's Protection Units (YPG) took control of the neighborhood in 2012. Separated from the larger Kurdish regions of Syria, Sheikh Maqsood had been vulnerable to assaults by the Al-Nusra Front and other Islamist rebel groups which were besieging the district from all directions but the south and west until they were driven back by pro-government forces in 2016. Islamist rebel groups frequently shelled Sheikh Maqsood. In May 2016,

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

's regional director suggested that the attacks on Sheikh Maqsood constituted

war crime A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...

s. Between February and April 2016, more than 83 civilians were killed by the attacks. In mid-June 2016, Russia accused the rebel militias of causing the death of over 40 civilians that month. A Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) spokesman accused rebels of causing 1,000 civilian deaths and injuries, through their shelling of Sheikh Maqsood. A

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

report from February 2017 came to the conclusion that, while during the siege of Eastern Aleppo the attacks against Sheikh Maqsoud decreased, Islamist rebel groups affiliated with Fatah Halab, after vowing to take revenge on the Kurds in Sheikh Maqsoud, intentionally attacked civilian neighborhoods of the Kurdish enclave – killing and maiming dozens of civilians – and that these acts constituted the war crime of directing attacks against a civilian population. On 22 February 2018, it was reported that the YPG had agreed to hand over the eastern districts of the city of Aleppo to the Syrian government. According to Syrian state television, this decision was made to reinforce positions around the region of Afrin, and to halt Turkey's offensive. This came days after pro-Syrian government fighters agreed to bolster the Kurdish forces in the northwest. SOHR and a witness later said that Syrian government forces had entered the areas controlled by the Kurdish fighters. YPG spokesman Nouri Mahmoud however denied this claim. A YPG commander later stated that Kurdish fighters had shifted to Afrin to help repel a Turkish assault. As a result, he said the pro-Syrian government forces had regained control of the districts previously controlled by them. In February 2023, the neighborhood was affected by an earthquake. Following the

fall of the Assad regime On 8 December 2024, the Assad regime collapsed during a 2024 Syrian opposition offensives, major offensive by Syrian opposition, opposition forces. The offensive was spearheaded by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) and supported mainly by the Turk ...

in 2024 and the subsequent capture of Aleppo by Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafieh neighborhoods retained their

autonomy In developmental psychology and moral, political, and bioethical philosophy, autonomy is the capacity to make an informed, uncoerced decision. Autonomous organizations or institutions are independent or self-governing. Autonomy can also be ...

as the SDF denied other militants access to the areas. Kurdish control over the districts was later solidified through multiple agreements between the SDF and the Syrian transitional government in December 2024 and April 2025. The agreements stipulate that only the SDF-affiliated internal security forces (Asayish) may remain in both neighborhoods. On 4 April the first SDF convoys started leaving the neighbourhood towards Tabqa in DAANES-administered territory (Rojava) and transferred control to the Asayish.

References

Neighborhoods of Aleppo Kurdish communities in Syria {{Neighbourhoods of Aleppo