BEIRUT, Lebanon, Sept 21, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - A Syria monitor said seven civilians were killed Saturday in bombardment by government personnel in northern Syria in an area where clashes had erupted with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

A semi-autonomous Kurdish administration controls swathes of north and northeast Syria, including oil and gas fields, with the SDF its de facto army.

Five women and two children were killed in the village of Umm Tina in the Deir Hafer area of Aleppo province in bombardment carried out "by Syrian army personnel", said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

After Islamist forces toppled longtime Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad late last year, the new authorities and the SDF in March agreed on a deal on integrating the Kurdish administration's civil and military institutions into the central government.

But differences between the two sides have held up implementation, and the Kurds have called for decentralisation, which Damascus has rejected.

The Deir Hafer area is located along the front lines between the Syrian army and the SDF, and periodic clashes take place in the area, Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.

He said it was the worst death toll in violence in northern Syria in months.

The Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, had reported earlier Saturday that "armed clashes involving drones and heavy weapons" erupted after the army targeted SDF military positions in the Deir Hafer area.

The US-backed, Kurdish-led SDF said in a statement that "pro-Turkey factions affiliated with the Damascus government" carried out drone strikes and artillery shelling, "deliberately targeting civilian homes".

It also provided a toll of seven civilians dead, including two children.

The SDF, with the support of a Washington-led coalition, played a vital role in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria, which ultimately led to the jihadist group's territorial defeat in the country in 2019.

Earlier this month, Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa said that "negotiations with the SDF were going well, but it seems there has been some type of hindrance or slowdown in the deal's implementation".

He said he had done everything "in the interest of northeast (Syria) and everything that would facilitate... not reaching a battle or war."