Kurdish-led forces that control large swaths of northern and northeastern Syria said 12 people were killed Wednesday in airstrikes it blamed on Turkey, Agence France-Presse reported.
“Turkish occupation warplanes and UCAVs [drones] targeted a military position belonging to our forces” as well as civilian homes and a vehicle in the Al-Shaddadi area, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said in a statement.
The group counted more than 16 strikes, which killed “four of our fighters … six civilian workers and two shepherds.”
Syria’s new leaders, who are close to Ankara, have called for Kurdish armed groups to lay down their weapons and have also rejected autonomy for the region they control.
Turkey accuses the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which make up the bulk of the US-backed SDF, of having links to Kurdish militants in Turkey and has threatened to launch a military operation against them.
Pro-Turkish factions in Syria conducted an offensive against the SDF in late November, just as an alliance of Islamist-led rebels was sweeping through the country on the way to overthrowing Bashar al-Assad on December 8.
Since then, fighting has been ongoing in northern Syria, despite US efforts to impose a truce.
The Western-backed SDF played a key role in the territorial defeat in Syria of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). In doing so it seized control of large areas of the country and brought them under its de-facto rule.
Kurdish leaders have indicated a willingness to make concessions to the new administration in Damascus and are in talks over several outstanding issues.
