Over 100 killed as US, Turkish proxies fight in Syria
More than 100 militants have been killed over the last two days in northern Syria in fighting between Turkish-backed groups and US-backed Kurdish forces, a London-based war monitor says.
Since Friday evening, clashes in several villages around the city of Manbij have left 101 dead, the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The fatalities included 85 members of pro-Turkish groups and 16 from SDF militants, it added.
In a statement, the SDF claimed it had repelled “all the attacks from Turkey’s mercenaries supported by Turkish drones and aviation.”
Backed by US forces, the SDF controls vast areas of Syria’s northeast and parts of Dayr al-Zawr province in the east following the withdrawal of government forces during the war that began in 2011.
The group, which is regarded a US proxy, took control of much of the current territory, including Raqqa, after Daesh terrorists were evicted from the area.
Mohammed al-Julani, the head of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which currently rules Syria, has previously said the SDF would be integrated into the country’s future army.
The foreign ministers of Germany and France, visiting Damascus on behalf of the European Union this week, said that Kurds must be involved in the country's transition if Damascus wanted European support.
Both Germany and France have a history of training Kurdish militants and providing them with weapons.
Last month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said foreign countries should withdraw their support for Kurdish militants in Syria.
In a statement released by his office, Erdogan said there was no longer any reason for outside support for Kurdish militants from the People's Protection Units (YPG), which form the backbone of the US-backed SDF.
Ankara considers the SDF an extension of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long insurgency in southeastern Turkey and is banned as a terrorist organization by the government.
The Turkish military regularly launches strikes against Kurdish militants in Syria and neighboring Iraq, accusing them of being PKK-linked.
Turkey’s proxies captured the cities of Manbij and Tal Rifaat in northern Aleppo province from the SDF when militants and Takfiri terrorists launched an onslaught on November 27 that overthrew Syrian president Bashar al-Assad just 11 days later.
Turkish Defense Minister Yaşar Guler recently announced that Ankara intends to expel SDF militants from the northern Syrian cities of Kobani and Raqqa, disarm them, and transfer their weapons to the HTS administration.
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