CAIRO/ANKARA: At least 14 civilians were killed and 29 wounded in attacks by Turkish-backed forces in northern Syria on Monday and Tuesday, the US-backed Kurdish militia group said.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said Turkish-backed forces targeted a market in the city of Sarrin with drones on Tuesday, killing eight civilians and injuring 20 others. Some of the wounded were in critical condition, they said.
Shelling by Turkish-backed forces on another area in northern Syria killed three civilians and injured nine on Tuesday, according to the SDF. They said Turkish forces also shelled a village near the town of Ain Issa in northern Syria on Monday, killing three civilians, including two children.
Turkiye’s defense ministry said in statements on Tuesday and Wednesday that Turkish forces had killed a total of 27 Kurdish militants in northern Syria, without mentioning civilian deaths.
A Turkish defense ministry official said on Wednesday the SDF’s statement was disinformation and denied the claims. Turkiye says it does not target civilians in its cross-border operations and takes measures to avoid harming any civilians, religious sites and residential areas.
The SDF, an ally in the US coalition against Daesh militants, is spearheaded by the YPG — a group that Turkiye sees as a terrorist organization and an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that has fought the Turkish state for 40 years.
Since the ouster of Syria’s Bashar Assad in December by rebels who have set up an administration friendly to Ankara, Syria’s Kurdish factions have been on the back foot. It is not clear whether Washington’s longtime support for Kurdish forces will continue under the administration of President Donald Trump.
Negotiators from the Syrian leadership, the United States, Turkiye, and the SDF have been zeroing in on a potential deal on the group’s fate. Syria’s new leadership wants to bring all of the country back under the government’s authority.
The SDF on Wednesday rejected Turkiye’s statement on the number of its fighters killed in attacks this week
At least 14 killed in Syria in attacks by Turkish-backed forces, says Kurdish militia
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At least 14 killed in Syria in attacks by Turkish-backed forces, says Kurdish militia
First responders enter devastated Aleppo neighborhood after days of deadly fighting
- The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army
ALEPPO, Syria: First responders on Sunday entered a contested neighborhood in Syria’ s northern city of Aleppo after days of deadly clashes between government forces and Kurdish-led forces. Syrian state media said the military was deployed in large numbers.
The clashes broke out Tuesday in the predominantly Kurdish neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsoud, Achrafieh and Bani Zaid after the government and the Syrian Democratic Forces, the main Kurdish-led force in the country, failed to make progress on how to merge the SDF into the national army. Security forces captured Achrafieh and Bani Zaid.
The fighting between the two sides was the most intense since the fall of then-President Bashar Assad to insurgents in December 2024. At least 23 people were killed in five days of clashes and more than 140,000 were displaced amid shelling and drone strikes.
The US-backed SDF, which have played a key role in combating the Daesh group in large swaths of eastern Syria, are the largest force yet to be absorbed into Syria’s national army. Some of the factions that make up the army, however, were previously Turkish-backed insurgent groups that have a long history of clashing with Kurdish forces.
The Kurdish fighters have now evacuated from the Sheikh Maqsoud neighborhood to northeastern Syria, which is under the control of the SDF. However, they said in a statement they will continue to fight now that the wounded and civilians have been evacuated, in what they called a “partial ceasefire.”
The neighborhood appeared calm Sunday. The United Nations said it was trying to dispatch more convoys to the neighborhoods with food, fuel, blankets and other urgent supplies.
Government security forces brought journalists to tour the devastated area, showing them the damaged Khalid Al-Fajer Hospital and a military position belonging to the SDF’s security forces that government forces had targeted.
The SDF statement accused the government of targeting the hospital “dozens of times” before patients were evacuated. Damascus accused the Kurdish-led group of using the hospital and other civilian facilities as military positions.
On one street, Syrian Red Crescent first responders spoke to a resident surrounded by charred cars and badly damaged residential buildings.
Some residents told The Associated Press that SDF forces did not allow their cars through checkpoints to leave.
“We lived a night of horror. I still cannot believe that I am right here standing on my own two feet,” said Ahmad Shaikho. “So far the situation has been calm. There hasn’t been any gunfire.”
Syrian Civil Defense first responders have been disarming improvised mines that they say were left by the Kurdish forces as booby traps.
Residents who fled are not being allowed back into the neighborhood until all the mines are cleared. Some were reminded of the displacement during Syria’s long civil war.
“I want to go back to my home, I beg you,” said Hoda Alnasiri.
