Kurdish-backed fighters launched counteroffensive against Syrian National Army on border with Turkey

Kurdish-led fighters in Syria, known as the Syrian Democratic Forces, said Tuesday they have launched a counter-offensive against the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army to take back areas near Syria’s northern border with Turkey.

The Kurdish-led SDF is Washington’s critical ally in Syria, targeting sleeper cells of the extremist Islamic State group scattered across the country's east.

Since the fall of the totalitarian rule of Bashar Assad earlier this month, clashes have intensified between the U.S.-backed group and the SNA, which captured the key city of Manbij and the areas surrounding it.

The intense weekslong clashes come at a time when Syria, battered by over a decade of war and economic misery, negotiates its political future following half a century under the Assad dynasty’s rule.

Ruken Jamal, spokesperson of the Women’s Protection Unit, or YPJ, which is under the SDF, told The Associated Press that its fighters are just over 11 kilometers away from the center of Manbij in their ongoing counter-offensive. She accused Ankara of trying to weaken the group’s influence in negotiations over Syria’s political future through the SNA,

A UK-based opposition war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, says that since the SNA’s offensive in northern Syria against the Kurds started earlier this month, dozens from both sides have been killed.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin spoke on Tuesday with Turkish Minister of National Defense Yaşar Güler, according to Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder.

Ryder said they discussed the ongoing situation in Syria, and Austin emphasized that close and continuous coordination is crucial to a successful effort to counter IS in the country. They also discussed the importance of setting the conditions to enable a more secure and stable Syria.

Ankara sees the SDF as an affiliate of its sworn enemy, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which it classifies as a terrorist organization. Turkish-backed armed groups alongside Turkish jets for years have attacked positions where the SDF are largely present across northern Syria, in a bid to create a buffer zone free from the group along the large shared border.While the SNA was involved in the lightning insurgency — led by the Islamic group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham — that toppled Assad, it has continued its push against the SDF, seen as Syria’s second key actor for its political future.

On Monday, the SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami said its forces pushed back the Turkish-backed rebels from areas near the Tishrin Dam on the Euphrates River, a key source of hydroelectric power. He said the SDF also destroyed a tank belonging to the rebels southeast of Manbij.

The British-based war monitor said on Tuesday that the Kurdish-led group, following overnight fighting, has reclaimed four villages in the areas near the strategic dam.