Cairo/Istanbul (dpa) – Syrian Kurdish fighters began withdrawing on Sunday from territory along the Turkish border under a Russian-Turkish deal reached this month, a war monitor reported.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) pulled out of several villages on the border strip with Turkey and were expected to carry out further pullouts, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Turkey launched an offensive in north-eastern Syria on October 9, to fight Kurdish militias which it considers terrorists linked to insurgents at home. The offensive was halted after a ceasefire brokered by Russia and the United States.

The SDF on Sunday said its forces were “redeploying” to new positions away from the border with Turkey and that Syrian government forces were replacing them.

The militia added in an online statement that the pullout was intended to “stop bloodshed and protect the inhabitants of the region from Turkish attacks."

On Saturday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to resume the offensive in north-eastern Syria if Kurdish militias do not leave the border area as part of an extended ceasefire brokered by Russia.

Turkey and Russia have agreed to jointly control the northern Syrian border areas targeted by the Turkish operation. The Kurdish fighters are to withdraw from a strip 30 kilometres deep by Tuesday evening.

The Syrian government welcomed the Kurdish withdrawal, the official Syrian News agency SANA reported, citing a Foreign Ministry source.

"It [the pullout] removes the main pretext for the wanton Turkish aggression on Syrian lands," the source said.

Despite the ceasefire in north-eastern Syria, overnight clashes erupted between SDF forces and Turkish-allied Syrian rebels in the region, the observatory said, without reporting casualties.

The Turkish Defence Ministry said on Sunday that a member of the Turkish military had been killed in clashes with the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in northern Syria.

Five "employees" were also injured in the incident in the Syrian border town of Ras al-Ain, the ministry said. It was unclear whether they were soldiers.

The military personnel were shot at during a "reconnaissance and surveillance mission" and fired back, according to the ministry.

Syrian Kurds played a key role in a US-led campaign against Islamic State militants in Syria, but found themselves recently abandoned by Washington.