BEIRUT: Syrian Kurdish fighters killed at least five members of Turkiye-backed Syrian opposition forces in an attack early on Monday in the northern Syrian town of Afrin.

The Turkish Defense Ministry also confirmed that two Turkish soldiers were killed in an attack in northern Iraq on Sunday by members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, the PKK. One of the soldiers died of his wounds in hospital.

The violence is the latest in a months long escalation between Turkiye and Turkish-backed groups, and Kurdish fighters in Syria and Iraq. 

Ankara says the main Syrian Kurdish militia is allied to the outlawed Kurdish group. The PKK has led an insurgency against Turkiye since 1984 that has killed tens of thousands of people.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a monitor in the UK with a network of observers in Syria, said Monday’s attack was carried out by the Afrin Liberation Forces, a Kurdish faction allied with the main Kurdish militia in Syria known as the People’s Protection Units or YPG. The group has claimed scores of attacks against Turkiye-backed Syrian fighters.

Syrian opposition activist Taher Al-Omar said the attack took place about 20 km south of Afrin, and five members of the Turkiye-backed Failaq Al-Sham faction were killed. 

Afrin has been under the control of Turkiye and its allied Syrian opposition fighters since 2018, following a Turkiye-backed military operation that drove Syrian Kurdish fighters and thousands of Kurdish residents from the area. Since then, there has been a series of attacks on Turkish and Turkiys-backed targets in the town and surrounding villages.