Battles between Kurdish and Turkish-backed fighters in northern Syria threatened on Wednesday to upend already shaky cease-fire agreements and stymie American attempts to contain escalating violence just as the country’s 13-year civil war is ending.

A spokesman for the American-backed, Kurdish-led fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces said skirmishes with a militia supported by Turkey had broken out in a number of sites around the city of Kobani and the nearby Euphrates River.

“Our forces are currently establishing defensive positions to counter ongoing attacks and safeguard all areas within north and eastern Syria, with a particular focus on the defense of Kobani,” Farhad Shami, the Kurdish forces’ spokesman, said on the social media platform X.

He accused Turkey and its allies of “attempting to exploit the current truce to continue its expansionist agenda and deceive the international community.”

Efforts on Wednesday to reach Turkish defense officials for a response were not immediately successful.

Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman, said earlier this week that the outgoing Biden administration was trying to help prevent “any increase in fighting in northern Syria at this point.”

Ms. Gray’s 14-year-old son, Colt, is being charged as an adult for murder in the deadliest school shooting in Georgia’s history. He is accused of bringing an AR-15-style rifle to Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., earlier this month, killing four — two students and two math teachers — and injuring at least nine.

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