At least 24 fighters, almost all members of Turkish-backed armed groups, have been killed in fighting with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, an alliance with a core Kurdish armed group), the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Thursday.

Twenty-three members of Ankara-backed organizations and a member of the Manbij military council, which is reported to the SDF, died in the fighting, the non-governmental organization said, noting that it was an “incomplete” tally of fighting fueled by bystander attacks. in Turkey of factions in two villages south of Manbij.

This city, which for years was controlled by the Kurdish forces, recently fell into the hands of organizations close to Ankara.

Part of the predominantly Arab region, however, remains under the control of the Manbij Military Council, which includes fighters under the auspices of the US-backed SDF alliance.

According to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a wide network of sources in Syria, hostilities “continue south and east of Manbij” while the Turkish armed forces are “bombarding the area with drones and heavy artillery”.

For their part, the SDF announced that they repelled attacks by organizations close to Turkey in areas south and east of the city of Manbij.

Yesterday “morning, with the support of five Turkish drones, tanks and modern armored personnel carriers, the mercenary organizations launched fierce attacks” on villages in the Manbij district, they emphasized in a statement. “Our fighters managed to repulse all the attacks, killing dozens of mercenaries and destroying six armored vehicles, including a battle tank,” they assured.

As a rebel alliance dominated by the radical Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Qaeda’s Syrian arm) seized power in Damascus on December 8 after a lightning advance, armed groups close to Turkey launched an attack on Kurdish forces.

The SDF continues to control large areas of northeastern Syria and part of Deir Ezzor province (east).

In general, these areas are governed autonomously by the Kurds, who have formed their own administrative structures after the withdrawal of former President Bashar al-Assad’s army from the initial stage of the war in Syria in 2011.

Between 2016 and 2019, Turkey conducted three large-scale military operations against the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the main component of the YPG, wresting control of two large areas along the border.