ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) on Sunday launched a fresh offensive against Kurdish forces in northern Aleppo province, as rebels continue fighting Syrian regime forces in Hama after securing Aleppo.
“The Syrian National Coalition affirms the right of the Syrian people, with all its components, to regain their country and land after it was stolen by the [Bashar al-] Assad regime and the Iranian militias that support it, as well as the PYD militia,” the SNA-led coalition said in a statement, using northeast Syria’s (Rojava) ruling Democratic Union Party (PYD) to refer to the Kurds.
As a coalition of rebel forces led by the jihadist Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) marched on Aleppo and sent regime soldiers fleeing, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) took control of strategic locations in eastern Aleppo and formed a corridor to the city from the Euphrates River, briefly capturing key sites such as Aleppo International Airport.
The Kurdish-led force later tactically withdrew from many of the sites, while maintaining their hold over Aleppo’s Kurdish-majority neighborhoods of Sheikh Maqsood and Ashrafiyeh, both long held by the People’s Protection Units (YPG) - the SDF’s backbone.
Media affiliated with the Kurdish-led Rojava administration on Sunday reported fierce clashes between the SDF and Turkish-backed militants in northern Aleppo province, near the Kurdish-held town of Tal Rifaat near Afrin and Shahba.
In a statement, the SDF announced the death of three of its fighters “while confronting an attack carried out by mercenaries of the Turkish occupation army.”
Turkey, which backs various Syrian rebel groups, has threatened in the past to carry out an offensive to remove Kurdish fighters from Tal Rifaat. It said it is closely following the situation and urged the warring parties not to cause “larger instabilities.”
Ankara also accused Kurdish forces in Tal Rifaat and nearby Manbij of “trying to take advantage of the current state of instability.”