ALEPPO, Syria (LifeSiteNews) — Christians in Aleppo have been suffering from battles between jihadist government troops and Kurds in Syria’s second largest city.
As reported by Christian Solidarity International (CSI), fighting erupted in Aleppo on January 4 between government forces and the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). The battles were centered on two districts of Aleppo, where many Christians and Kurds live, and which are controlled by the SDF.
Since Bashar al-Assad was ousted in December 2024, Syria’s government has been led by Ahmed al-Sharaa, the founder of al-Qaeda’s Syria branch, who was known as a notorious Islamic terrorist. His Islamist government wants centralized control of Syria. Still, two areas remain largely outside of its control: northeast Syria, dominated by Kurds, and the Druze-majority region of Suwayda in the South.
Al-Sharaa’s security forces have been dominated by the jihadist paramilitary organization Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which carried out massacres of thousands of Alawite Muslims and Druze civilians in 2025.
As LifeSiteNews reported in April 2025, Christian civilians have often become caught in the battles and have suffered under the repressive Islamic regime, which imposes anti-Christian sharia law on them.
According to International media reports, at least 22 people have been killed since the battles in Aleppo broke out on January 4, and around 13,500 people have fled the city.
The fighting has lasted until January 9, when the U.S. negotiated a fragile ceasefire, which requires SDF soldiers to leave the districts. However, as CSI notes, it remains unclear whether this will end the fighting.
CSI International shared a letter by Father Georges Sabé, a member of the Marist religious order and the founder of the “Blue Marists” NGO in Syria, who spoke about the suffering that the people of Syria, especially the Christians, are enduring.
“I write this letter from the hell of the war that has ravaged Aleppo for the past four days,” Sabé wrote. “In our city, there are two neighborhoods under Kurdish control: Ashrafiya and Shaykh Maqsoud. In these two neighborhoods live hundreds of thousands of people of all ethnicities and religions. The Christians of Aleppo call Shaykh Maqsoud ‘Jabal al Sayda’ (the hill of Our Lady). In this neighborhood lives a very poor Christian community.”
“For weeks, fighting broke out in Aleppo but was halted by truces,” he stated.
“However, since Monday, January 5, 2026, and until the moment I write this letter, the fighting has intensified, causing above all a massive displacement of the population of the two neighborhoods. Horrible scenes of people wandering without knowing where to go: children, youth, women, and men continuously leaving the neighborhoods. Shelling does not stop, day or night.”
“It is horror, as if 14 years of war, sanctions, and earthquakes were not enough,” the priest wrote. “As if this city were cursed. As if the streets of Aleppo were thirsty for blood … As if horror multiplied endlessly. Why must Aleppo and its inhabitants endure such a fate? Until when? When will the horizon of peace become a reality? We no longer have the strength for resistance or resilience. We are afraid and we ask ourselves: Until when?”
He continued, “I share with you these words from a young Marist doctor who, from the university hospital where he is an intern, shares his feelings: ‘In the heart of Aleppo’s university hospital … frightened faces … Worried staff wondering if the road is safe to return home … Exhausted patients, without medicine or money … An exodus and uprooting marking the path of arrival, an icy cold tightening what remains of the beats of a tired heart … And we continue to say: there is hope … ’”