11 killed in north Syria Kurdish-led attacks on pro-Turk positions

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said Monday 11 people including civilians were killed in attacks by a Kurdish-led force on positions of Turkey-backed fighters in north Syria.

"A woman, her two children and a man were killed... in the bombing of a military position... used by Ankara-backed factions for human smuggling operations to Turkey," the Britain-based monitor said.

It said seven Turkey-backed fighters were also killed in that incident and in an operation by the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that control swathes of northeast Syria.

SDF special forces infiltrated a Turkey-backed group's military position and killed three fighters, said the monitor with a network of sources inside Syria.

Mourners attend a mass funeral in Syria's Al Bab city on Monday. AFP

The SDF also booby-trapped a military position as they withdrew, in an attack that killed another four pro-Turkey fighters but also four civilians including a woman and her two children, the Observatory said.

On Sunday, 15 Ankara-backed Syrian fighters were killed after the SDF infiltrated their territory, the monitor reported earlier.

The SDF is a US-backed force that spearheaded the fighting against the Islamic State group in its last Syria strongholds before its territorial defeat in 2019.

It is dominated by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), viewed by Ankara as an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Turkish troops and allied rebel factions control swathes of northern Syria following successive cross-border offensives since 2016, most of them targeting the SDF.

Agence France-Presse