SDF kills 21 SNA militants near Tishreen Dam: Monitor

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - At least 21 militants of the Syrian National Army (SNA) were killed on Wednesday after the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) retaliated to their attack on the Tishreen Dam near Manbij, a war monitor reported, amid violations of a ceasefire deal. 

“At least 21 members of the pro-Turkish factions were killed and others were wounded by fire from the Manbij Military Council forces, in an attack by the pro-Turkish factions on housing in Tishreen Dam,” said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor. 

A fragile US-brokered ceasefire between the Kurdish-led SDF and the Ankara-backed SNA near the symbolic Kurdish city of Kobane in northern Syria has been in place since last week and was extended on Tuesday.

But both the Observatory and the SDF have blamed the SNA for violating the ceasefire.

On Thursday, the SDF said that they shot down a Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drone near Kobane after it launched strikes on the US-backed force. 

Kurdish officials had repeatedly warned that the recent attacks on the dam have severely damaged the structure of the dam and its operations.

SDF has also warned that Turkey and SNA have prepared to strike Kobane after rebels toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime earlier this month. They first moved against the SDF by attacking the northwestern Shahba region, taking Tal Rifaat and Manbij.