The shelling occurred near Manbij, an area controlled by the US -allied Kurdish militia the People’s Protection Units (YPG), after the fighters did not heed a warning from Turkish forces, CNN Turk said. Turkish state media agency Anadolu confirmed Turkish forces fired upon the YPG after allegedly obtaining intelligence that Kurdish forces were advancing on the nearby city of Jarablus.
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President Tayyip Erdogan and senior government officials have made clear the aim of “Operation Euphrates Shield” is as much about stopping the Kurdish YPG militia seizing territory and filling the void left by Islamic State as about eliminating the radical Islamist group itself.
On Wednesday, the YPG denounced the Turkish military offensive in Syria as “a hostile intervention”, refusing to cave in to pressure coming from Turkey. “Period”, Biden said at a joint news conference with Turkish PM Binali Yildirim.
Control over Manbij, a mostly Arab town, gives the Kurds a foothold on the west bank of the Euphrates River that would enable them to pursue a declared plan to link up Kurdish-controlled areas of eastern Syria with a small Kurdish enclave in western Syria.
The withdrawal came after Turkey launched an operation on Wednesday to oust ISIS from the Syrian border town of Jarabulus, as well as prevent an operation on the same town by Syrian Kurdish forces.
Turkey sees the PYD and its People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia as terror groups bent on carving out an autonomous region in Syria.
Turkey said on Thursday that it has “every right” to intervene if Syrian Kurdish forces did not retreat across the Euphrates.
Isik concluded: “They have not yet withdrawn but we are watching and monitoring whether they will withdraw”.
“They need Turkey more than the Kurds, because if Turkey goes rogue, on the other side, they are scared they’ll lose all the support as far as the counter-ISIL operation goes”, Alam added referring to the Incirlik Air Base, from which American aircrafts have been carrying out airstrikes against IS in Syria.
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Turkey views the YPG as linked to outlawed militant groups in Turkey, particularly the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (Tak), both of which have committed attacks on Turkish soil since the collapse of a fragile ceasefire in July 2015.
