ALEPPO - The last Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters left the Syrian city of Aleppo on Sunday, state-run Ekhbariya TV said, following a ceasefire deal that allowed evacuations after days of deadly clashes.

The departure marks the removal of Kurdish forces from pockets of Aleppo they have held since Syria’s war began in 2011, while Kurdish forces continue to run a semi-autonomous zone across large parts of northeastern Syria.

SDF commander Mazloum Abdi said in a post on X the group had reached an understanding, through international mediation, on a ceasefire and the safe evacuation of civilians and fighters from Aleppo’s Ashrafiyah and Sheikh Maksoud neighbourhoods to northern and eastern Syria.

The violence in Aleppo has deepened one of the main faultlines in Syria, where President Ahmed al-Sharaa's promise to unify the country under one leadership after 14 years of war has faced resistance from Kurdish forces wary of his Islamist-led government.

The United States and other world powers welcomed a ceasefire earlier in the week, but Kurdish forces refused to leave the last stronghold of Sheikh Maksoud under the deal. 

Syria's army said it would conduct a ground operation to clear them and combed through the neighbourhood on Saturday.

Reuters reporters then saw dozens of men, women and children streaming out of the neighbourhood on foot. Syrian troops put them onto buses and said they would be taken to displacement shelters. 

More than 140,000 people have already been displaced by the fighting this week.

The Reuters reporters later saw security forces put more than 100 men in civilian clothes on buses.

Syrian security officials at the scene identified them as members of the Kurdish internal security forces, known as the Asayish, and said they had surrendered. 

The Asayish later denied any of those who left Aleppo were fighters, saying they were all civilians that had been forcibly displaced.