On Sunday, Turkey intensified its “Euphrates Shield” military offensive in northern Syria, with Turkish warplanes and artillery pounding areas held by pro-Kurdish forces close to Jarablus, the town taken from ISIL by Ankara-backed Syrian rebels earlier this week.
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The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 40 civilians had been killed in Turkish shelling and air strikes on two areas held by pro-Kurdish forces in northern Syria, the first report of significant civilian casualties in Turkey’s operation.
The new escalation highlights concerns that Turkey’s incursion into Syria this week could lead to an all-out confrontation between Ankara and Syrian Kurds, both American allies, and hinder the war against the Islamic State group by diverting resources.
A Syrian rebel commander said that Turkish-backed rebels aim to capture Manbij city from Kurdish-allied forces as conflict between the sides escalated in northern Syria yesterday.
Syrian rebels backed by Turkish ground troops have forced Kurds out of three villages, Sputnik is citing the Kurdish source as saying. Washington backs the Kurdishaligned SDF and YPG, seeing them as the most reliable and effective ally in the fight against Islamic State in Syria. The YPG is the military arm of the Syrian Kurdish PYD political party. Five buildings used by the Kurdish rebels also were destroyed, the military said.
Ankara is keen on stopping Kurdish forces from taking control of a line of territory along the southern Turkish border, Sky News reported.
Our correspondent said the Turkish army had been “shelling and launching air strikes” in areas controlled by the YPG.
President Tayyip Erdogan was expected to visit the site of that wedding attack in Gaziantep, in southeastern Turkey, later on Sunday to pay his respects to families of the victims.
The primarily Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) said Turkey’s military had fired on a village near Kobani on Friday night, about 20 miles east of Jarablus.
Ankara is deeply suspicious of the Syrian Kurdish militia that dominates the US -backed Syria Democratic Forces, viewing it as an extension of the Kurdish insurgency raging in southeastern Turkey. “We will find them and punish them”. Rebels linked to the Kurdish Worker’s Party, PKK, have been fighting for autonomy inside Turkey for decades, and a two-year cease-fire fell apart last year. YPG leaders say they have, but their units advise the Syrian Democratic Forces, and it is not clear if any remain west of the Euphrates.
Syrian warplanes renewed their bombing of the besieged al-Waer neighborhood in the central city of Homs. The district’s hospital was bombed and made non-operational earlier this month.
On Saturday, the last rebel fighters were evacuated from the town of Daraya just outside Damascus, under a deal that followed a brutal 4-year government siege.
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The US has struggled to balance its alliance with Syrian Kurds and Turkey, a key North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally.
