More than 100 fighters have been killed in northern Syria in the last two days in clashes between Turkey-backed armed factions and Syrian Kurdish forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reports.
Since Friday evening, the fighting around villages near the city of Manbij has resulted in 101 deaths, including 85 from the Turkish-backed Syrian factions and 16 from the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), according to SOHR director Rami Abdel Rahman.
In a statement, the SDF claimed they repelled “all attacks from Turkish mercenaries supported by Turkish drones and aviation.”
The Turkey-backed factions resumed their attacks on the SDF when Islamist rebel groups launched an offensive against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces on 27 November, ultimately removing him from power eleven days later.
The factions have recaptured the cities of Manbij and Tal Rifaat in northern Aleppo province from the SDF.
Heavy fighting continues, resulting in significant human casualties.
According to Mr Rahman the Turkish factions aim to next capture the cities of Kobani and Tabaqa, then Raqqa, eventually driving the SDF out of the territories under their control.
The SDF controls vast areas of the northeast and parts of Deir Ezzor province, where the Kurds established an autonomous administration after Syrian government forces withdrew at the start of the civil war in 2011.
Neighbouring Turkey regards the SDF as an extension of its arch-enemy, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and the Turkish military regularly targets Kurdish fighters in Syria and Iraq.
Ahmad al-Chareh, the new Syrian leader and head of the radical Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), has stated that the SDF should be integrated into the future Syrian army.
The HTS-led coalition of rebel groups now controls a large part of the country.
