Aleppo Region Sees Surge in Violence as Kurdish Forces Target Turkish Proxies
Heavy fighting between Syrian Kurdish forces and Turkish-affiliated proxies near the northeastern city of Aleppo left more than a dozen people dead or injured, including combatants and civilians, an international war monitor reported Sunday.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which relies on sources and informants within Syria, said the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched an offensive on Turkish-held positions along the Al-Daghlabash frontline in the Aleppo countryside.
Fifteen fighters from the Ankara-backed Liberation and Construction Movement militia and other allied groups were killed during the “violent clashes,” which involved “heavy and medium weapons,” according to SOHR.
Throughout the day, SDF and Turkish-backed forces exchanged heavy fire in villages and cities within the “Euphrates Shield” area, with local sources reporting multiple civilian deaths and injuries.
The “Euphrates Shield” refers to a zone in northern Syria that the Turkish army invaded and occupied before nominally withdrawing troops in 2017.
Earlier Sunday, Turkish artillery fire on the village of Halysah, north of Aleppo, killed a 40-year-old displaced man and injured three children, aged nine, 13, and 14, the war monitor said. Rockets fired from SDF-held territory reportedly killed two civilians and injured 12 others in Turkish-controlled Al-Bab city.
The violence in Syria’s north, particularly near Al-Bab, prompted education officials to cancel school on Monday, an AFP correspondent said.
The Kurdish-dominated SDF, whose backbone is the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), has been a key US ally in combating ISIS but faces opposition from Turkey. Ankara views the YPG as linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), complicating NATO relations and regional dynamics.
