(Beirut) At least 15 Syrian fighters supported by Ankara were killed on Sunday after Kurdish-led forces infiltrated their territory in northern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) said.
Posted at 5:37 p.m.
Fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), who control large areas of the northeast of the country, have “infiltrated the positions of fighters supported by Turkey” in the surroundings of Aleppo, noted the OSDH, which has 'a network of sources in Syria.
“The two camps engaged in violent clashes” which killed 15 of the fighters supported by Ankara, the OSDH reported.
According to an AFP correspondent in northern Syria, the clashes took place near the town of Al-Bab, where local authorities announced that schools would be closed on Monday due to the violence.
The SDF is a US-backed force that led the fighting against the Islamic State group in its last Syrian strongholds before its defeat in 2019. It is dominated by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), considered by Ankara as an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The PKK claimed responsibility for an attack in Ankara on October 23, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed that its two perpetrators had “infiltrated” from Syria.
Turkish troops and allied rebel factions control swathes of northern Syria following successive cross-border offensives since 2016, mostly targeting the SDF.
