Syria Monitor: 101 Killed in Battles between Pro-Türkiye, Kurdish Forces

A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration shoots at pictures of Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad (R) and his late father and former president Hafez al-Assad, inside the abandoned Syrian Republican Guard (SRG) base near Damascus on January 4, 2025. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)
A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration shoots at pictures of Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad (R) and his late father and former president Hafez al-Assad, inside the abandoned Syrian Republican Guard (SRG) base near Damascus on January 4, 2025. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)
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Syria Monitor: 101 Killed in Battles between Pro-Türkiye, Kurdish Forces

A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration shoots at pictures of Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad (R) and his late father and former president Hafez al-Assad, inside the abandoned Syrian Republican Guard (SRG) base near Damascus on January 4, 2025. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)
A fighter affiliated with Syria's new administration shoots at pictures of Syria's ousted president Bashar al-Assad (R) and his late father and former president Hafez al-Assad, inside the abandoned Syrian Republican Guard (SRG) base near Damascus on January 4, 2025. (Photo by Bakr ALKASEM / AFP)

More than 100 combatants were killed over the last two days in northern Syria in fighting between Turkish-backed groups and Syrian Kurdish forces, a war monitor said on Sunday.
Since Friday evening, clashes in several villages around the city of Manbij have left 101 dead, including 85 members of pro-Turkish groups and 16 from the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The SDF said it had repelled "all the attacks from Türkiye’s mercenaries supported by Turkish drones and aviation".
The Turkish defense ministry said it had "neutralized" 32 Kurdish fighters in northern Syria, without providing further details.
Turkish-backed factions in northern Syria resumed their fight with the SDF at the same time as the opposition armed factions were launching an offensive on November 27 that overthrew Syrian president Bashar al-Assad just 11 days later.
The pro-Ankara groups succeeded in capturing Kurdish-held Manbij and Tal Rifaat in northern Aleppo province, despite US-led efforts to establish a truce in the Manbij area.
The fighting has continued since, with mounting casualties.
During a visit to Damascus on Friday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said security of the Kurds is "essential for a peaceful Syria." She said this requires "an end to the fighting in the north and the integration of the Kurdish forces... in the Syrian security architecture."
The SDF controls vast areas of Syria's northeast, and parts of Deir Ezzor province in the east, where the Kurds created a semi-autonomous administration following the withdrawal of government forces during the civil war that began in 2011.
The group, which receives US backing, took control of additional territory after capturing it from the ISIS group.
Ankara accuses the main component of the SDF, the People's Protection Units (YPG), of affiliation with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long insurgency in southeastern Türkiye and is banned as a terrorist organization by the government.
The Turkish military regularly launches strikes against Kurdish fighters in Syria and neighboring Iraq, accusing them of being PKK-linked.
Ahmed al-Sharaa, Syria's new leader and the head of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) group, told Al Arabiya TV in late December that local Kurdish-led forces should be integrated into the national army.
HTS led the coalition of opposition groups that overthrew Assad last month.



Biden: Joseph Aoun is ‘First-Rate Guy’

FILE - President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool, File)
FILE - President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool, File)
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Biden: Joseph Aoun is ‘First-Rate Guy’

FILE - President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool, File)
FILE - President Joe Biden addresses the nation from the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, July 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool, File)

US President Joe Biden welcomed the election of Joseph Aoun as Lebanon's president on Thursday, saying in a statement that the army chief was the “right leader” for the country.

“President Aoun has my confidence. I believe strongly he is the right leader for this time,” said Biden, adding that Aoun would provide “critical leadership” in overseeing an Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire.

Aoun's election by Lebanese lawmakers ended a more than two-year vacancy and could mark a step towards lifting the country out of financial meltdown.

“We finally have a president,” Biden said later, at the end of a meeting on the response to major wildfires in the US city of Los Angeles.

He said he had spoken to Aoun by phone on Thursday for “20 minutes to half an hour,” describing the Lebanese leader as a “first-rate guy.”

Biden pledged to continue US support for Lebanon’s security forces, and for Lebanon’s recovery and reconstruction, the White House said in a readout of Biden’s call with Aoun.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called Aoun's election “a moment of historic opportunity,” which offered Lebanon a chance to “establish durable peace and stability.”

Aoun, who turned 61 on Friday, faces the difficult task of overseeing the fragile ceasefire with Israel in south Lebanon.

Separately, Biden spoke about the hostage talks between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“We’re making some real progress,” he told reporters at the White House, adding that he had spoken with US negotiators earlier Thursday.

“I know hope springs eternal, but I’m still hopeful that we’ll be able to have a prisoner exchange.”

Biden added: “Hamas is the one getting in the way of that exchange right now, but I think we may be able to get that done. We need to get it done.”