TRANSCRIPT:
Aleppo in Syria, and the sound of thousands of civilians fleeing the city.
Mohammed Sheikho is just one of many.
"A projectile hit the yard next to our house, so we left. There's no-one left in the streets. The situation is really bad for the people inside. Whoever has the means can hide. We spent the entire night under a staircase, me and the children."
Violence erupted, with government forces and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces battling it out on the streets.
Schools, universities and government offices in the city shut down, throwing the rituals of daily life into chaos as flights to and from Aleppo airport were suspended.
The clashes are the latest to break out in Aleppo as officials work to advance a deal to address Syria's deepest remaining fracture by merging the United States-backed SDF with the central government.
The two sides failed to implement a March 2025 deal to merge the Kurds' semi-autonomous administration and military into Syria's new Islamist government.
And locals like Avrine Joanne are wondering why, after the country's brutal civil war, it's all happening again.
"Why is this sectarianism and racism happening? Why is there us and them? We're all the children of Syria. Our identity is Syrian and is inclusive of all sects. These strikes are displacing us and we're already displaced."
The SDF is reluctant to give up autonomy it won during 14 years of war, which left it with control of IS prisons and oil resources in a country that remains fragile just over a year after the toppling of Bashar al-Assad.
The SDF controls swathes of Syria's north and northeast and was key to the territorial defeat of the IS group in Syria in 2019.
Failure to integrate the SDF into Syria's army risks further violence and could potentially draw in Turkey, which has threatened an incursion against Kurdish fighters it views as terrorists.
In a statement published in various news outlets this week, the Operations Command of the Syrian Arab Army announced that all military positions of the SDF inside the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighbourhoods of Aleppo are now legitimate military targets.
The Kurds are pushing for decentralised rule, an idea which Syria's new authorities have rejected.
Head of the Hasakah Municipality, Farouq Tuzo, says people are ready to fight to maintain autonomy in the Kurdish regions.
"The mercenary groups are targeting civilians, hospitals, and residents of those neighbourhoods, aiming to break the morale of the people. But we, all the components of northeastern Syria and the Autonomous Administration, consider ourselves ready to sacrifice ourselves for Sheikh Maqsoud, Ashrafiyah, and Bani Zeid."
Stephane Dujarric, spokesman for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has urged all parties to exercise maximum restraint to prevent further harm to civilians.
"The UN reiterates that all parties have a clear obligation under international humanitarian law to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure. We call on all actors to immediately de-escalate, exercise maximum restraint, and take all measures to prevent further harm to civilians. We continue to encourage all parties to demonstrate flexibility and goodwill on both the military and political tracks and promptly resume negotiations in order to fully implement the March 10th agreement."
Syria's government says it has opened two humanitarian corridors for civilians to flee the conflict.
