Rebel-Kurd clashes kill 15 in northern Syria: Monitor

Beirut, Lebanon - More than a dozen Syrian rebels have died in hit-and-run clashes with a USbacked alliance dominated by Kurdish forces in the country’s north, a monitoring group said on Tuesday.

The Turkish-backed rebels were locked in a second day of fighting on Tuesday with units from the Syrian Democratic Forces around the village of Ain Daqna.

“Since Monday, 15 fighters from Syrian rebel factions were killed in the clashes and four SDF fighters were wounded, including one in critical condition,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor said.

Ain Daqna, in Aleppo province, has been held by the US-backed SDF since February. It lies on a sliver of land contested by the SDF and Turkishbacked rebels.

A local official from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which make up the bulk of the SDF, said his forces had retrieved some of the rebels’ bodies.

“We will hand over these nine bodies to the Kurdish Red Crescent in Afrin (west) for their families to retrieve them,” Brusk Hasakeh said in a statement distributed to journalists.

Turkish-backed rebels fighting under the banner of ‘Ahl a -Diyar’ said in a statement on Monday they had attacked Ain Daqna because they see the SDF as ‘occupiers’.