Turkey has been shelling Kurdish militias in northern Syria along the Turkish border for months.
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The latest fighting is likely to raise deep concerns for Turkey’s North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally the United States, which supports the YPG as an effective fighting force against ISIS.
A Turkish soldier was killed by a Kurdish rocket attack late Saturday, the first such fatality in Turkey’s ground offensive dubbed Euphrates Shield that began August 24.
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member Turkey regards the YPG as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, which has fought a three-decade insurgency for autonomy in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast.
The Britain-based group said four local fighters were also killed in the bombardment.
The operation, labeled Euphrates Shield, is also aimed at pushing back US -allied Kurdish forces. “If necessary, we will not shy away from taking responsibility in the same way in other areas”.
Addressing thousands of flag-waving supporters in Gaziantep, Erdogan said he was “ready and determined to clear our region of terror groups”.
Turkey is part of the USA -led coalition fighting IS, but the airstrikes that began Saturday marked the first time it has targeted Kurdish-led forces in Syria. Turkish leaders have vowed to drive both IS and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, away from the border.
A Syrian rebel commander said on Sunday that Turkey-backed rebels aimed to capture the city from Kurdish-allied forces.
“Because the YPG are east of the Euphrates, not in Manbij or Jarablus”, said Ibrahim Ibrahim, head of the Rojava Media Office.
Ankara considers the YPG a “terrorist” group and has fiercely opposed its bid to expand into areas recaptured from ISIS to create a contiguous autonomous zone.
The monitor also said at least four Kurdish fighters had been killed and 15 injured in Turkish bombardment of the two areas. He said the bombing also targeted the village of Amarneh. In general, those United States special operations forces have close contact with their Turkish counterparts, and they rely on Turkey for their rear supply lines, according to people familiar with the situation.
The Kurdish Democratic Union Party condemned the attack on the village.
The clashes underscore the complexity of the US-led global coalition campaign to reverse IS’s territorial hold in Syria and the dangers faced in that mission, the WSJ said.
Another 20 were killed and 25 wounded, many seriously, in Turkish air strikes near the town of Al-Amarneh, it said. Turkey is a leading backer of the rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad, but both Ankara and Damascus share concerns over Kurdish ambitions for autonomy.
Also Sunday, government warplanes renewed their air campaign against the besieged neighborhood of al-Waer in the central city of Homs. The group blamed Russian and Syrian joint military operations room for the use of such weapons in violation of global law.
The neighborhood, home to almost 75,000 people, has been under siege since March and has been one area that U.N agencies have reported hard to access.
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But some rebel groups have rejected the plan unless aid passes through opposition-held areas and the ceasefire applies to other areas of Syria under siege.
