There were no immediate reports of clashes Wednesday between Turkish forces and the US -supported Kurdish YPG (People’s Protection Units), the Associated Press reported, but Turkish jets carried out airstrikes near Jarablus and Turkish artillery fired on targets west of Jarablus.
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But analysts said further Turkish involvement in Syria’s five-year war and clashes with the YPG were fraught with risks and could stoke tensions with North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally Washington.
The warplanes struck Arab Ezza and al-Ghundura, which lies a short distance south of the Turkish border and west of the town of Jarablus, which was the first place seized by Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) forces when they crossed the border on August 24 into Syria.
Following comments by a U.S. military spokesman who had expressed hopes that rather than see Turkey pursue Kurdish fighters, “all parties involved are going to stop shooting at each other and focus” on IS, Ankara contacted the USA ambassador over comments the foreign ministry called “unacceptable“.
In comments made to the state-run Anadolu news agency on Wednesday, EU Minister Omer Celik says, “Turkey is a sovereign state, it is a legitimate state”.
The Kurdish forces, known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, are no longer fighting around the border town of Jarablus, said Saleh Muslim, co-president of the Democratic Unity Party, speaking in Brussels after a news conference at the European Parliament.
The US says that such a movement has largely occurred, while fighters from the US-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF), which includes Syrian Kurdish militias, say they have withdrawn south following the Turkish offensive.
Three Turkish soldiers were injured in a rocket attack on a tank near Jarabulus, according to Turkish television.
In an unusual public rebuke, Mr. Biden said Kurdish forces had taken more territory in northern Syria than had been agreed after the offensive to dislodge Islamic State from Manbij.
“The US it should be said, does not share this view, and regards the YPG as the most able and courageous fighters in that part of the Middle East. “W$3 e draw clear delineation between the PKK and the Syrian Kurds, as I said, who are part of the many groups that are fighting against Daesh”, US State Department spokesman John Toner explained on July 2″.
Kurdish-backed militias said they had agreed to the truce.
The military operation triggered alarm bells in Washington, which is trying to contain the violence between its Turkish and Kurdish allies.
Ankara said it killed 25 “terrorists” in strikes on pro-Kurdish positions on Sunday.
Calling the escalation “unacceptable” the United States urged the warring parties to stop fighting each other and concentrate on combatting IS.
The Turkish media have been full of reports on the operation and its significance.
Ankara fears the emergence of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria would bolster the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) across the border in southeastern Turkey.
The Pentagon says Kurdish forces have already moved east of the Euphrates, in compliance with Turkish and USA demands.
United States officials have threatened to withdraw backing for the YPG if it did not meet that demand, but said this had mostly happened.
On August 20, a Kurdish wedding that took place in a Turkish border city was destroyed by a vehicle bomb attack.
The group also claimed to have carried out a suicide auto bombing against Turkish-backed rebels in the same area and to have killed “dozens” of Turkish soldiers and Turkish-backed rebels. For Turkey, which has long called for the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, containing advances by the Kurdish militia appears to have eclipsed all other concerns. It said casualties were inflicted but did not give figures.
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“Although the fight against terrorism… is a principle for all peace-seeking governments, it can not and must not justify military operations on another country’s territory without coordination with its central government”, he said.
