BEIRUT: A Syria war monitor said 31 combatants had been killed since Sunday in ongoing battles between Turkiye-backed groups and Kurdish-led forces.

Swathes of northern Syria are controlled by a Kurdish-led administration whose de facto army, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), spearheaded the fight that helped defeat the militant Islamic State group in the country in 2019 with US backing.

Turkiye accuses the main component of the SDF, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), of being affiliated with the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which both Washington and Ankara consider a terrorist group.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that seven pro-Turkish fighters were killed in clashes on Monday in the northeastern Manbij region, in Aleppo province.

Pentagon says ceasefire between Turkiye and US-backed SDF holding

While the death toll continues, the Pentagon said a ceasefire between Turkiye and the US-backed Kurdish Syrian forces around the northern Syrian city of Manbij was holding.

Washington brokered an initial ceasefire earlier this month after fighting that broke out as rebel groups advanced on Damascus and overthrew the rule of Bashar al-Assad. But on Dec 19, a Turkish defence ministry official said there was no talk of a ceasefire deal between Ankara and the SDF.

“The ceasefire is holding in that northern part of Syria,” Pentagon spokesperson Sabrina Singh told reporters.

The SDF is the main ally in a US coalition against the IS in Syria. Its fighters had infiltrated the city of the same name after it was retaken by Ankara-backed groups earlier this month, the monitor said.

Six other pro-Turkish fighters and three members of the SDF were killed the day before in the same part of Aleppo province, it said.

The SDF said that it had carried out attacks elsewhere in the province that destroyed “two radars, a jamming system and a tank of the Turkish occupation” near a strategic bridge over the Euphrates.

According to the observatory, 13 members of the pro-Turkiye factions and two members of the SDF “were killed as a result of flaring battles” near the bridge and the Tishreen Dam.—AFP

The Britain-based Observatory said clashes in the area had been going on for around three weeks “as both sides seek to advance”.

The United States has about 2,000 US troops in Syria that have been working with the SDF to fight IS fighters and prevent a resurgence of the group, which in 2014 seized large swathes of Iraq and Syria but was later pushed back.

Turkiye has staged multiple operations in SDF areas since 2016, and Ankara-backed groups have captured several Kurdish-held towns in northern Syria in recent weeks.

The fighting has continued since rebels led by religious group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad from power on Dec 8.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2024