Syrian Kurds battled with forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad on Saturday, breaking a longstanding tacit agreement between the two sides to focus on other enemies in a complex civil war, Kurdish sources and a monitoring group said. Reuters report:
In Syria's predominantly Kurdish northeast, Assad's forces and Kurdish militia, mainly the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), have for the most part coexisted without clashing, focusing their firepower on the Islamic State insurgent group.
However, violence broke out when army soldiers and allied militiamen took control of buildings in an area that both sides had agreed would stay demilitarized, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said.
"There has been some serious fighting today. The PYD (the political wing of the YPG) arrested 10 soldiers and Baath party gunmen," Observatory head Rami Abdulrahman told Reuters.
"There is now fighting in many areas of Hassakeh."
Source:ereporter