Deadly Clashes Erupt Between Syrian Government Forces and Kurdish Fighters

A deadly outburst of fighting in Syria’s second largest city, Aleppo, signaled rising tensions between the central government and the Kurdish-led militia that controls much of the country’s northeast.

The northeastern region is one of several dominated by a minority group that has refused to submit to government control in the 10 months since Islamist rebels overthrew the dictator Bashar al-Assad.

At least one government soldier and one civilian were killed on Monday night as Syrian military forces traded fire with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, according to the government news agency, SANA. It was one of the most serious outbreaks of violence between the two sides since the new government came to power.

Gov. Azzam al-Gharib of Aleppo said in a Facebook post that government forces had “no intention of any military escalation” in the area. By Tuesday morning the clashes had stopped, and the Syrian defense minister announced a cease-fire after talks between the two sides.

Even before the clashes in Aleppo, Syria’s new president, Ahmed al-Shara, had already come under criticism for his handling of violence in two other regions dominated by other minorities. A new conflict with the Kurdish minority could amplify that criticism as Mr. al-Shara tries to unite and rebuild Syria after 13 years of civil war and decades of brutal authoritarian rule.

Government officials have insisted that their administration should maintain a monopoly of force in the country and have grown impatient with the Kurdish-led forces, which have delayed implementing an agreement to join the government.

The fighting broke out on Monday in two Kurdish-controlled neighborhoods of Aleppo, the main city in northern Syria. It was not immediately clear what set it off.

The two neighborhoods, Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud, mark a front line between government-controlled territory and the area held by the Syrian Democratic Forces, or S.D.F.

The neighborhoods are mostly populated by Kurds, who have lived under partial isolation from the rest of the city since rebel forces led by Mr. al-Shara seized control of Aleppo during a lightning offensive that culminated in the Assad regime’s ouster last December.

The defense minister, Maj. Gen. Murhaf Abu Qasra, said after his meeting with Mr. Abdi that the two had agreed on a “comprehensive cease-fire on all fronts and military positions in northern and northeastern Syria” with immediate effect.

The U.S. special envoy to Syria, Thomas J. Barrack Jr., and Adm. Brad Cooper, the chief of the U.S. Central Command, met with Mr. Abdi on Monday in northeastern Syria and then traveled to Damascus on Tuesday. The Syrian presidency posted photos of them meeting with Mr. al-Shara on social media.

Mr. Abdi has been Washington’s main ally in its fight against the Islamic State in Syria since 2014.

Mr. al-Shara and Mr. Abdi had signed an agreement in March, facilitated by American officials, to integrate the Syrian Democratic Forces into the national military. But the agreement has not been implemented, and tensions have been rising over the pressure to move things forward.

Politically, the Syrian government and the Kurdish-led administration of the northeastern region remain at loggerheads. The Kurdish region was excluded from Syria’s first parliamentary elections in the post-Assad era this week because it remains outside government control.

The Kurdish administration has criticized the Damascus government’s handling of sectarian clashes in other parts of Syria in recent months. Human rights groups have accused forces affiliated with the government of involvement in deadly attacks on Alawites, a religious minority, in two coastal provinces in March and on Druse, another religious minority, in the southern Sweida region over the summer.

Salam Bahadi, a 63-year-old resident of a government-controlled area bordering the Ashrafieh neighborhood, described the fighting he witnessed late Monday night.

“By midnight, the clashes began to hit our area hard,” he said. After the fighting moved away, he said, he heard someone screaming outside.

“I went out to the balcony and saw a person lying on the sidewalk across from my building, injured in his hand and leg,” he said. The injured man was a Kurdish civilian from Ashrafieh trying to get out of the fighting zone, he added.

“He told me a sniper had shot him.”

Mr. Bahadi said he called for an ambulance, but was told it couldn’t reach the area.

“I kept talking to him for over an hour, trying to keep him conscious,” he said. Eventually two men from the neighborhood carried the injured man away in a blanket.

A 30-year-old Kurdish woman living in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood said she heard gunfire and mortar explosions for hours throughout the night. She asked not to be named for fear of reprisals from the Kurdish authorities.

She said she took part in a demonstration on the Kurdish side. The protesters asked the government side not to use military force but to resolve things politically. But soon after she returned home, she said, the fighting erupted.

Hussam Hammoud and Hwaida Saad contributed reporting.