Kurdish forces in northeastern Syria denied on Saturday claims by the Turkish defence ministry that its forces had taken the battleground border town of Ras al-Ain, the first in its four-day-old offensive.

"Ras al-Ain is still resisting and clashes are ongoing," said an official of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

An AFP correspondent in the area said Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels had entered the town but had yet to capture it.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights too reported that the town, a major target of the Turkish offensive, had yet to be overrun.