ISTANBUL

The Aleppo governor said Sunday that security and normal life are gradually returning to the northern Syrian city after key neighborhoods were cleared of YPG/SDF terror elements.

In a post through US social media company X, Azzam al-Gharib reassured residents that “the security situation is witnessing a gradual return to stability in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods, so that the city may return to a state of safety and stability.”

He said “the page of anxiety has been turned,” adding that Aleppo “has returned safe with its people—strong in their unity and fortified by their will.”

Al-Gharib noted that “the relevant authorities are continuing their field work on an ongoing basis to stabilize security and ensure the return of normal life in all neighborhoods,” concluding that “Aleppo today is safe, and tomorrow it will be even more stable, God willing.”

The remarks came as the evacuation of the last group of YPG/SDF terrorists from Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood began, according to the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA).

SANA said they were placed in a convoy of buses and ambulances after accepting evacuation terms, with another group evacuated from Yasin Hospital to the same destination.

Syria’s state television, citing security sources, said the evacuated groups were the last YPG/SDF terrorists to leave Aleppo, adding that the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods are now under the control of the Syrian Army.

The militants are being transferred to the town of Tabqa, west of the Euphrates River, an area under YPG/SDF control.

The army had earlier announced that all military operations in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood were halted as of 3 pm local time (1200GMT) Saturday.

Since Tuesday, the YPG/SDF terror group had shelled residential neighborhoods, civilian facilities, and Syrian Army positions in Aleppo, killing 23 people, wounding more than 100, and displacing about 165,000 residents from the Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud districts, according to official figures.