Sheikh Maqsood


Sheikh Maqsood, sometimes spelled al-Sheikh Maqsoud, Maqsud or Maksud, is a neighborhood in the city of Aleppo, Syria. It is populated mainly by Kurds and is under the control of the Kurdish-majority People's Protection Units.

In the Syrian Civil War

During the Syrian Civil War, Kurdish YPG militias took control of the neighborhood. Far away from the Kurdish inhabited enclaves, Sheikh Maqsood had been very vulnerable to assaults by the Al-Nusra Front and other Islamist rebel groups which were besieging the district from all directions but the south and west until they were driven back by pro-government forces during June and November 2016.
Islamist rebel groups shelled Sheikh Maqsood many times, causing destruction of property and injury and death of civilians. In May 2016, Amnesty International's regional director suggested that the attacks on Sheikh Maqsood constitute "war crimes". Between February and April 2016 more than 83 civilians were killed by the attacks. In mid-June 2016 Russia accused the rebel militias of causing the death of over 40 civilians in the month. A Syrian Democratic Forces spokesman accused rebels of causing 1,000 civilian deaths and injuries, through shelling of Sheikh Maqsood.
A United Nations report from February 2017 came to the conclusion that, while during the siege of Eastern Aleppo the attacks against Sheikh Maqsoud decreased, Islamist rebel groups affiliated with Fatah Halab, after vowing to take revenge on the Kurds in Sheikh Maqsoud, intentionally attacked civilian inhabited neighborhoods of the Kurdish enclave – killing and maiming dozens of civilians – and that these acts constituted the war crime of directing attacks against a civilian population.