More clashes reported in Syria

Kurdish, Turkish conflicts would violate cease-fire

Turkish forces and Turkish-backed militias appeared to have clashed with the Syrian army and the Kurdish-led militia in northeastern Syria on Thursday, raising the temperature in a volatile area where the Syrian government, Turkish forces, Kurdish-led fighters and Russia are maneuvering for position after the pullout of U.S. troops.

Turkish-backed forces pushed into several villages held by the Syrian army, capturing one of them and causing an unspecified number of casualties, according to the Syrian government news agency. The Turkish-backed militias’ advance also forced the Kurdish-led militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces, to withdraw from several villages, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britainbased war monitor.

Three SDF fighters were killed in the battle, the group said Thursday.

Fighting between the Kurdish-led forces and Turkey would violate the U.s.-brokered cease-fire that President Donald Trump said had brought peace to the area. But fighters with the Turkishbacked militias, known as the Syrian National Army, denied attacking the villages Thursday.

The Turkish military said five of its soldiers had been wounded Thursday in a Kurdish strike on the town of Ras al-ayn. Turkish forces seized the town last week after the Syrian Democratic Forces, a former American ally, and U.S. troops withdrew from it in advance of the Turkish incursion.

The skirmishes Thursday underscored that the future of northeastern Syria is largely in the hands of Turkey, the Syrian government of Bashar Assad and Assad’s patron, Russia.