Syria's Kurdish-led SDF hopes to end clashes with Arab militia in the 'next 24 hours'

The US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Tuesday pushed deeper into the last stronghold of Arab tribal militias who have taken up arms against them in eastern Syria.

A spokesperson said they hoped to end clashes which have been ongoing since last week there in the “next 24 hours.”

The fighting, which broke out eight days ago in the oil-rich province of Deir Al-Zour along the Euphrates River, has so far killed at least 50 people, including several civilians, and wounded dozens. Hundreds of US troops have been based in eastern Syria since 2015 to fight against the Islamic State group.

The violence has pitted the SDF against the tribesmen and former allies of the the Arab-led militia known as the Deir Al-Zour Military Council.

It was sparked by the arrest last month of the militia's leader, Ahmad Khbeil, better known as Abu Khawla, accused by SDF of “multiple crimes and violations,” including drug trafficking.

SDF spokesperson Farhad Shami told The Associated Press that the Kurdish-led forces have cleared three towns in the province previously seized by the militia. “What's left is (the town of) Ziban," he said. "We are hoping to end tensions there in the next 24 hours."

Shami said some 100 armed men are estimated to be in Ziban, along with suspected cells of the Islamic State group. Now rivals, the SDF and the militia were allies in the war against IS.

A Britain-based opposition war monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said that the leader of a pro-Iran Arab tribe fighting against the SDF had called on his tribesmen and others to “free Deir Al-Zour from the despicable Kurds”.

The Damascus-based Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad has criticized the Kurdish-led SDF for its close alliance with the United States in the war against Islamic State militants and for forming what authorities describe as an autonomous enclave in eastern Syria.

Meanwhile, Turkey and Turkish-backed oppositions groups in Syria's northwest routinely clash with the SDF.

Ankara claims the SDF is allied with Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which has led an insurgency within Turkey since 1984. Ankara has declared the PKK a terrorist group, as has the US, EU and UK.