Syria Kurds denounce 'brutal mutilation of female fighter by Turkey-backed rebels'

Kurdish forces in Syria have accused Turkey-backed rebels of mutilating the corpse of one of their female fighters, after a video emerged of the "brutal scene".

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces said in a statement on Friday that rebels had mutilated a member of its all-female military unit after she was killed during fighting against Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels.

"Their corpses were seized by the invaders who mutilated one of the corpses… which reveals the real identity of those invaders and their brutality and hatred to the women," the statement said.

The SDF accused the rebels of being members of al-Qaeda and Ankara of backing the extremist group.

A video has been widely shared on social media which appears to show a group of men, some armed, gathering around the badly mutilated body of a woman lying on the ground.

The footage shows the young woman has been partly stripped of her clothing and her breasts and genitals have been grossly disfigured.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said in a statement that it received the video from a Syrian rebel fighting with Turkish forces in the Afrin offensive.

The rebel told the SOHR the footage was filmed on Tuesday after rebels found the woman's corpse in the village of Qurna near the Turkish border in the north of the enclave.

A Kurdish official identified the young woman as Barin Kobani, who took part in a US-backed campaign to drive the Islamic State jihadist group from the northern town of Kobane.

The Kurdish community has reacted with outrage and social media users shared online a portrait of Kobani smiling next to another shot of her brutalised body.

Turkey launched its operation "Olive Branch" on January 20 against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia, supporting Syrian opposition fighters with ground troops and air raids.

Ankara says the YPG is a "terrorist" offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is proscribed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.

The US and France have repeatedly expressed concern over the cross-border offensive, which Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to expand.