ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Buses began arriving in Aleppo on Friday to transport Kurdish-led security forces out of the city under Syrian government supervision, Syrian state media reported, coming after a tenuous ceasefire was reached between the warring sides overnight.

Clashes between Damascus-affiliated and Kurdish-led security forces (Asayish) have wracked Aleppo’s Kurdish-majority Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh neighborhoods in recent days, with tens of people having been killed so far. 

The Syrian defense ministry early Friday announced that a truce had been reached, with one of the conditions of the agreement being the removal of Kurdish fighters from the city to northeast Syria (Rojava).

Aleppo province's media directorate announced that "in the coming hours, members of the SDF [Syrian Democratic Forces] will be moved with their light weapons to the east of the Euphrates," with the state outlet SANA publishing photos of buses arriving in the vicinity of the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood.

Syrian state media on Friday published images of buses arriving in Aleppo with the purported purpose of transporting Kurdish fighters out of the city to northeast Syria (Rojava) after a ceasefire brought recent clashes to a halt

📸: SANA pic.twitter.com/s7pvcLSD2V

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The Kurdish-led SDF denied any role in the fighting, insisting that its forces had withdrawn from the city in accordance with an April 1 agreement between the Civil Council of Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafiyeh neighborhoods and the Syrian government that saw the SDF evacuate the two neighborhoods in Aleppo, leaving the internal Asayish forces in charge.

The Asayish and SDF have yet to make a public statement on the ceasefire.

The Syrian military said it would escort them safely to Rojava, with internal security forces coordinating the withdrawal.

US Special Envoy for Syria Tom Barrack on Friday hailed the halting of hostilities, thanking "the Syrian government, the Syrian Democratic Forces, local authorities, and community leaders... for the restraint and goodwill that made this vital pause possible."

"We are working intensively to extend this ceasefire and spirit of understanding beyond this morning’s 9 o’clock deadline," Barrack wrote on X.