BEIRUT: More than 100 combatants were killed over the last two days in northern Syria in fighting between Turkish-backed groups and Syrian Kurdish forces, a war monitor said on Sunday.
Since Friday evening, clashes in several villages around the city of Manbij have left 101 dead, including 85 members of pro-Turkish groups and 16 from the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
In a statement, the SDF said it had repelled “all the attacks from Turkiye’s mercenaries supported by Turkish drones and aviation.”
Turkish-backed factions in northern Syria resumed their fight with the SDF at the same time Islamist-led rebels were launching an offensive on November 27 that overthrew Syrian president Bashar Assad just 11 days later.
They succeeded in capturing the cities of Manbij and Tal Rifaat in northern Aleppo province from the SDF.
The fighting has continued since, with heavy casualties.
According to Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Observatory, the Turkish-backed groups aim to take the cities of Kobani and Tabqa, before moving on to Raqqa.
The SDF controls vast areas of Syria’s northeast and parts of Deir Ezzor province in the east where the Kurds created an autonomous administration following the withdrawal of government forces during the civil war that began in 2011.
The group, which receives US backing, took control of much of its current territory, including Raqqa, after capturing it from the jihadists of the Daesh group.
Ankara considers the SDF an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long insurgency in southeastern Turkiye and is banned as a terrorist organization by the government.
The Turkish military regularly launches strikes against Kurdish fighters in Syria and neighboring Iraq, accusing them of being PKK-linked.
Ahmed Al-Sharaa, Syria’s new leader and the head of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS), has previously said the SDF would be integrated into the country’s future army.
HTS led the coalition of rebel groups that overthrew Assad last month.
Syria monitor says fighting between pro-Turkiye, Kurdish forces kills 101
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Syria monitor says fighting between pro-Turkiye, Kurdish forces kills 101
US military operations ‘ahead of schedule,’ Iranian leaders want to talk: Trump
- Trump also said Sunday that 48 Iranian leaders have been killed in the US-Israeli bombardments
- Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said a leadership council had temporarily assumed duties
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Iran’s new leadership wants to talk to him and that he has agreed, according to an interview with the Atlantic magazine.
“They want to talk, and I have agreed to talk, so I will be talking to them. They should have done it sooner. They should have given what was very practical and easy to do sooner. They waited too long,” Trump said in the interview from his Florida residence. Trump did not specify who he would be speaking with or say whether it would occur on Sunday or Monday.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said a leadership council composed of himself, the judiciary head and a member of the powerful Guardians Council had temporarily assumed the duties of supreme leader following the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Trump said some of the people who were involved in recent talks with the US are no longer alive.
“Most of those people are gone. Some of the people we were dealing with are gone, because that was a big — that was a big hit,” he was quoted as saying in the interview with Atlantic staff writer Michael Scherer. “They should have done it sooner, Michael. They could have made a deal. They should’ve done it sooner. They played too cute.”
Offensive moving ‘ahead of schedule’
Trump also said Sunday that 48 Iranian leaders have been killed in the US-Israeli bombardments of the country and that the offensive is “very positive.”
“Nobody can believe the success we’re having, 48 leaders are gone in one shot. And it’s moving along rapidly,” Trump was quoted as saying in an interview by Fox News.
Trump claimed overall success in the war, which was launched Saturday with the goal of removing Iran’s leadership and destroying its military. Iran has confirmed the death of its supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
“We’re doing our job not just for us but for the world. And everything is ahead of schedule,” Trump was quoted as saying in a separate interview with CNBC.
“Things are evolving in a very positive way right now, a very positive way,” he said.
The interviews were conducted before the US military for the first time announced casualties in the war: three unidentified service members killed, five seriously wounded and several others more lightly injured.
Trump announced Sunday that the US military was sinking Iran’s Navy, having destroyed nine Iranian warships so far and “going after the rest.”
Trump made the announcement in a social media post as the Pentagon intensified its bombings of Iran’s military, deploying B-2 stealth bombers from the US to strike at hardened, underground Iranian missile facilities with 2,000-lb bombs.
US strikes also pummeled Iran’s naval headquarters, largely destroying it, Trump said.
