News Flash
BEIRUT, Lebanon, Nov 25, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - At least 15 Ankara-backed Syrian
fighters were killed Sunday after Kurdish-led forces infiltrated their
territory in the country's north, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war
monitor said.
Fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who controls swathes of the
country's northeast, "infiltrated positions of the Turkish-backed" fighters
in the Aleppo countryside, said the Observatory, which has a network of
sources inside Syria.
"The two sides engaged in violent clashes" that killed 15 of the Ankara-
backed fighters, the monitor said.
An AFP correspondent in Syria's north said the clashes had taken place near
the city of al-Bab, where authorities said schools would be suspended on
Monday due to the violence.
The SDF is a US-backed force that spearheaded the fighting against the
Islamic State group in its last Syria strongholds before its territorial
defeat in 2019.
It is dominated by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), viewed by
Ankara as an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which
claimed the attack on Ankara.
Turkish troops and allied rebel factions control swathes of northern Syria
following successive cross-border offensives since 2016, most of them
targeting the SDF.