BEIRUT, Lebanon, Jan 5, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - 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 Turkey'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 al-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 Kobane 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 
Islamic State group.

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 organisation by the government.

The Turkish military regularly launches strikes against Kurdish fighters in 
Syria and neighbouring 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.