“Four of our fighters were wounded, and communication with three others was lost,” the SDF said, adding that the clashes resulted in the killing of 28 Turkish-backed SNA fighters and the injury of 36 others near Manbij.
“Our forces successfully targeted mercenary gatherings 24 times and shot down one suicide drone,” the SDF added.
Kurdish forces in northern Syria are under intensified attacks by Turkey and Turkish-backed SNA militants, who have taken the strategic towns of Tal Rifaat and Manbij since late November, at the same time the Islamist-led Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was amid a blistering offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The clashes are especially intense near the crucial Tishreen Dam and Qere Qozaq bridge on the Euphrates River that leads to the symbolic Kurdish city of Kobane on the Turkish border.
Turkey considers the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the SDF, as the Syrian front for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and has threatened to carry out a military offensive against them.
