Turkish-led assault faces strong Kurdish resistance in Syria

QAMISHLI – Turkish forces and their proxies are facing a strong resistance from Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria on the third day of the offensive.

Fighting raged in on Friday as Turkish forces tried to seize key Kurdish-held towns.

Kurdish counter-attacks overnight led to the retaking of two of the 11 villages they had lost since the start of assault.

"There is heavy fighting between the SDF and the Turks on different fronts, mostly from Tal Abyad to Ras al-Ain," the Syria Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based war monitor said the Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies - mostly Sunni Arab former rebels - were using air strikes, heavy artillery and rocket fire.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tweeted that “Operation Peace Spring” was against PKK/YPG fighters and Islamic State (IS) terrorists in northern Syria.

Giran Ozcan, from Turkey’s People’s Democratic Party (HDP) slammed the “horrific” military assault.

“There are absolutely no ISIS (IS) fighters who are active along that border they (Turkish forces) are attacking right now. Secondly it is the Kurds they attacking,” Ozcan told Al Jazeera English news channel.

The Syrian Democratic Forces - the autonomous Kurds' de facto army - scrambled to repulse multiple ground attacks along a roughly 120 kilometre (75 mile) long segment of the border.

"The SDF are using tunnels, trenches and berms" in their defence operations, the Observatory said.

A media centre affiliated to the Kurdish administration also said that Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad, which have been almost emptied of their population, were the worst hit.

It quoted a Kurdish military official as saying that some tribes in the mainly Arab area had sided with the Turks and raised sleeper cells to attack from behind SDF lines.

On Thursday, the SDF said they held off another incursion attempt in the Ras al-Ain area, further east.

"Our forces confronted a field incursion attempt by the Turkish occupation army on the axis of Tal Halaf and Aluk,” the SDF said in a statement.

The Observatory also reported that dozens of Arab residents from the border area had joined the Turkish side.

According to the Observatory, a total of at least 10 civilians and 29 SDF fighters have been killed since the start of the offensive.

Turkey announced Friday morning that one of its soldiers had also been killed and three others wounded.