The Syrian Defense Ministry's Department of Media and Communication announced that a number of SDF members defected from the Deir Hafer front east of Aleppo over the past 59 minutes between 8:46 PM and 9:46 PM UTC on January 15, dropping their weapons and being secured by Syrian Arab Army forces upon arrival at army positions, according to a statement posted by ivarmm on X. In a separate development during the same period, a video clip surfaced showing two Syrian Arab Army members singing and boasting about throwing Kurdish female fighter 'Deniz' from the top of a building in the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood of Aleppo, as reported by Rudaw and posted by vvanwilgenburg on X. These reports follow the Syrian Defense Ministry's SMS messages sent to remaining residents in Deir Hafer and Maskana between 8:17 PM and 8:46 PM UTC earlier tonight, urging them to distance themselves from SDF positions and use an extended evacuation corridor until tomorrow due to SDF road closures, according to QalaatAlMudiq on X. Deir Hafer has become a ghost town after widespread civilian evacuations ahead of the military operation, with prior extensions of the humanitarian corridor until 5:00 PM Friday and mutual accusations between the Syrian Arab Army and SDF over blocking civilian passage, as previously reported by AlekhbariahSY and SDF_Syria on X.
