Aleppo on alert as new clashes reported

Syria's army told Kurdish forces on Tuesday to withdraw from an area east of Aleppo after deadly clashes in the city last week and as both sides reported fresh armed skirmishes breaking out overnight.

- 

Syria's Islamist-led government is seeking to extend its authority across the country, but progress has stalled on integrating the Kurds' de facto autonomous administration and forces into the central government under a deal reached in March.

In Qamishli, the main Kurdish city in the country's northeast, thousands of people demonstrated against the Aleppo violence, with some burning pictures of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa, an AFP correspondent said.

Syrian state television published an army statement with a map declaring a large area east of Aleppo city a “closed military zone” and said “all armed groups in this area must withdraw to east of the Euphrates” River.