Intense fighting on Saturday around the Tishreen dam, southwest of Kobani (Kobanê) in northern Syria, left 52 mercenaries of the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) dead. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which confronted the SNA attacks, claimed they had destroyed two armoured vehicles and a tank and that there were dozens of wounded among the SNA lines. They also reported that five of their own fighters had been killed in the fighting.
An SDF statement said that the SNA attacked the dam on Saturday using armoured vehicles, with air support from Turkey. The fighting, which lasted more than 12 hours, was documented by SDF footage. A ceasefire in the region of Manbij (Minbîc) lasted for four days last week, but failed to prevent fighting around the Tishreen Dam. Recently the fighting has caused significant casualties, with 210 SNA mercenaries reported dead on the morning of 15 December.
An SDF Unit destroys a tank belonging to the Turkish-backed mercenaries in the vicinity of the Tishreen Dam.
The Tishreen Dam has been a key battleground between the Turkish-backed SNA and the Kurdish-led SDF, the official military wing of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria (AANES), for the past 13 days. Since the SDF agreed to move its forces defending Manbij to the eastern bank of the Euhprates river, Turkish-backed mercenaries have been putting pressure on the areas around Kobani with attacks on the Tishreen dam and the Qara Quzak (Qere Qozaq) Bridge. At the same time, the Turkish state has been bombing the area around Kobani, causing civilian and material losses, including 300 tons of wheat in a drone attack on Saturday.
Fighting around the Tishreen Dam has put the dam out of operation. The dam has been unable to provide electricity to the region, adding to the pressure on areas under AANES that are already sheltering tens of thousands of refugees.
