Monitor says 31 Kurdish, Turkish-backed fighters killed in Syria

A Syria war monitor said 31 combatants had been killed since Sunday in ongoing battles between Turkey-backed groups and Kurdish-led forces.

Swathes of northern Syria are controlled by a Kurdish-led administration whose de facto army, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), spearheaded the fight that helped defeat the Islamic State group in the country in 2019 with US backing.

Turkey accuses the main component of the SDF, the People's Protection Units (YPG), of being affiliated with the militant Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which both Washington and Ankara consider a terrorist group.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that seven pro-Turkish fighters were killed in clashes Monday in the northeastern Manbij region, in Aleppo province.

SDF fighters had infiltrated the city of the same name after it was retaken by Ankara-backed groups earlier this month, the monitor said.

Six other pro-Turkish fighters and three members of the SDF were killed the day before in the same part of Aleppo province, it said.

The SDF said Monday that it had carried out attacks elsewhere in the province that destroyed "two radars, a jamming system and a tank of the Turkish occupation" near a strategic bridge over the Euphrates.

According to the Observatory, 13 members of the pro-Turkey factions and two members of the SDF "were killed as a result of flaring battles" near the bridge and the Tishreen Dam.

The Britain-based Observatory said clashes in the area had been going on for around three weeks "as both sides seek to advance".

Turkey has staged multiple operations in SDF areas since 2016, and Ankara-backed groups have captured several Kurdish-held towns in northern Syria in recent weeks.

The fighting has continued since rebels led by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted longtime ruler Bashar al-Assad from power on December 8.

New Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose HTS group has long had ties with Turkey, told Al Arabiya TV on Sunday that the Kurdish-led forces should be integrated into the national army.

"Weapons must be in the hands of the state alone. Whoever is armed and qualified to join the defense ministry, we will welcome them," he said.

"Under these terms and conditions, we will open a negotiations dialogue with the SDF... to perhaps find an appropriate solution."