"Dozens of families were forced to leave the city of Deir Hafer, a rural area east of Aleppo, after it was declared a closed military zone by the Syrian transitional government and the main humanitarian crossing was shut, according to local residents. “We travelled from the village of Um al-Murra to the main crossing point opened by the Ministry of Defence. As it was closed, we made our way through the farms until we reached a checkpoint, where army personnel helped us. However, many families are still trapped inside and unable to leave,” Hussein, a local resident, said. Footage filmed on Thursday shows families travelling in vehicles along the Deir Hafer–Aleppo highway near the village of Hamima. White Helmets personnel and vehicles were also seen assisting civilians on the road.  The Syrian state news agency SANA reported on Thursday that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) had closed humanitarian corridors in Deir Hafer and Maskanah, in the eastern countryside of Aleppo, and prevented civilians from leaving through them, after the Syrian Arab Army Operations Command announced that the corridors were open to civilians. The SDF did not comment on the allegations but confirmed that escalation was ongoing in Deir Hafer, Maskanah and around the Tishreen Dam, accusing government forces of 'intense aggression'. On Tuesday, the transitional government declared the area stretching from Deir Hafer to Maskanah a 'closed military zone', calling on residents to evacuate. It said the move was aimed at preventing armed groups from using the area as a base for what it described as criminal activities. In response, the SDF dismissed the announcement as 'misleading', stating that there were no military mobilisations by its forces in the area. It accused the transitional government of attempting to create tensions and fabricate pretexts for further escalation. The developments come after days of clashes between the two sides in the Ashrafieh and Sheikh Maqsoud neighbourhoods of Aleppo, which ended with SDF-affiliated security forces withdrawing from the areas On March 10, Syrian transitional leader Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF commander Mazloum Abdi signed an agreement to integrate all civil and military institutions affiliated with the Kurdish self-administration into the framework of the Syrian state by the end of 2025. However, the agreement had not been implemented at the time of publication, and sporadic clashes between the two sides have continued."