ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Monday announced that calm has overtaken the Aleppo's eastern Deir Hafer area, following attacks by suspected Damascus-affiliated forces on Kurdish positions.

“Calm has returned to the fronts of Deir Hafer following artillery shelling and attacks carried out by suicide drones operated by armed groups affiliated with the Damascus government, which deliberately targeted residential neighborhoods,” the Kurdish-led force said in a statement.

The Rojava-based security forces (Asayish) reported that on Saturday evening the “Deir Hafer crossing was subjected to direct targeting by a suicide drone belonging to rogue factions linked to the Damascus government,” injuring four Asayish members, according to a statement by the security forces on Sunday.

In a statement on Sunday, the SDF said that "militants of the Damascus government continue to escalate their assaults and violations in the regions of northern and eastern Syria," adding that "their suicide drone launched an attack on a military vehicle in the vicinity of Deir Hafer, resulting in minor injuries to three of our fighters."

The Syrian defense ministry denied the "misleading" allegations in a statement to SANA, dubbing them an attempt by the SDF to "cover up their crimes against civilians in northeastern Syria."

The attack allegedly took place in an area where clashes between Damascus-affiliated forces and the SDF have erupted in recent weeks, with both sides routinely accusing the other of violating a shaky ceasefire.

The deadliest of the recent attacks took place last month, when drones and intense artillery shelling directly targeted the homes of residents in Deir Hafer, which led to the death of seven civilians, with both trading the blame for the attack.

The attacks are threatening to dismantle a major agreement signed in March between interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi, which calls for the integration of the SDF and institutions in the Kurdish-held northeast into the Syrian state.

Sharaa earlier this month claimed that Arabs comprise more than 70 percent of northeast Syria’s population and that the SDF does not represent the views of all Syrian Kurds.

The US-backed SDF functions as the de facto army of northeast Syria and played a key role in the territorial defeat of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria in 2019.