A Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) fighter walks near a wall, which activists said was put up by Turkish authorities, on the Syria-Turkish border in the western countryside of Ras al-Ain, Syria January 29, 2016. REUTERS/Rodi Said

BEIRUT (Reuters) - A official from the Kurdish YPG militia said on Saturday the Turkish army had fired on YPG members near Qamishli city in northeast Syria, close to the Turkish border.

Redur Xelil, an official from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) said: “There was firing by Turkish troops at members of the People’s Protection Units near the city of Qamishli which caused serious injury in one person. There was then an exchange of fire between the two sides.

“The situation is now tense,” Xelil said.

The YPG has been an important partner for the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State in Syria, but has also been fighting Syrian insurgent groups in northwestern Syria near Aleppo in recent weeks.

Turkey views the YPG as a terrorist group, an extension of Kurdish militants who have fought a three-decade insurgency in its own southeast.