Syria's defense ministry said seven soldiers were killed on Wednesday when the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces targeted an arms depot in the country's northeast, despite a fresh ceasefire announced a day earlier.

"Army forces found a factory for producing explosive devices and drone munitions" in Hasakeh province near a border crossing with Iraq, the ministry said, adding that as government forces began securing the site, the SDF "targeted it with a suicide drone, leading to an explosion and the death of seven soldiers", with 20 others wounded.