Syria Kurds keep Turkey at bay in border town: monitor

Beirut: Syria’s Kurds put up stiff resistance Tuesday around an ethnically divided border town that is a key goal of Ankara’s nearly week-old invasion, a war monitor reported.
The Syrian Democratic Forces, the de-facto army of the Kurdish administration in northeast Syria, “launched a major counterattack overnight against Turkish forces and their Syrian proxies near Ras al-Ain,” the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The Britain-based monitor said “fortifications, tunnel networks and a continuous supply of reinforcements” had enabled the SDF to hold off Turkish efforts to take the town.
An AFP correspondent in the area said clashes continued on Tuesday, despite repeated claims by Ankara in recent days that it had captured the area.
The Turkish invasion has already killed 70 civilians and 135 SDF fighters since its launch on October 9, according to the Observatory.
The monitor has put the number of pro-Turkish Syrian fighters killed at 120.