ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Syrian defense ministry on Sunday accused the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) of carrying out an attack in northern Syria that left at least seven dead, while the SDF earlier blamed Damascus.

“The Ministry of Defense … holds the SDF fully responsible for the massacre committed against the people of Umm Tina village, in an attempt to villainize the Syrian Arab Army,” the ministry told Syria’s state SANA news agency. 

It further slammed the Kurdish-led force for targeting civilians “in a systematic way,” stressing that it was the SDF, rather than Damascus-affiliated forces, that carried out the attack. 

The Kurdish-led northeast Syria administration in late Saturday said that “factions affiliated with the Syrian Interim Government and linked to the Turkish state” committed the “horrific massacre” in Aleppo’s eastern Deir Hafer area.

“The attack began with the use of drones, followed by intense artillery shelling that directly targeted the homes of residents, resulting in the martyrdom of seven civilians,” the administration said in a statement. 

It further called on the international community to help bring the perpetrators to account, holding Damascus fully responsible for the attack. 

The attack took place in an area where clashes between Damascus-affiliated forces and the SDF have erupted in recent weeks, with both sides routinely accusing the other of violating a shaky ceasefire. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, accused “Syrian army personnel” of the bombardment in Umm Tina village, saying that five women and two children were killed. 

The attacks are threatening to dismantle a major agreement signed in March between interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi, which calls for the integration of the SDF and institutions in the Kurdish-held northeast into the Syrian state. 

Sharaa earlier this month claimed that Arabs comprise more than 70 percent of northeast Syria’s population and that the SDF does not represent the views of all Syrian Kurds.

The US-backed SDF functions as the de facto army of northeast Syria and played a key role in the territorial defeat of the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria in 2019.