Following IS’s defeat in Jerablus on Turkey’s border with Syria, Ankara issued an ultimatum to the YPG, the Syrian Kurdish paramilitary, which is backed by United States forces, that has retaken land in northern Syria from IS.
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At least 20 civilians were killed and 50 others injured in Turkish air strikes and artillery fire in Syria on Sunday (28 August), the fifth day of the offensive against Islamic State (Isis) and Kurdish forces, a monitor group said.
Kurdish fighters said they had confronted an attack by the Turkey-backed rebels in northern Syria on Saturday, marking the first clash between the groups, following Ankara’s military intervention in northern Syria last Wednesday.
Late Saturday night, Turkey’s official news agency reported that one Turkish solider had been killed and three wounded by what it said was a Kurdish rocket attack in Jarablus, near where the fighting has raged.
An SDF spokesman Shervan Darwish said the air strikes and shelling started overnight and continued into Sunday killing many civilians in the town and nearby areas.
Tensions between Ankara and the Kurdish militia flared Sunday, with clashes taking place eight kilometres (five miles) south of the town of Jarabulus, the border town recaptured from IS this week by Turkish-backed Syrian rebels, a monitoring group and Kurdish sources said.
Turkey first sent tanks across the border on Wednesday as part of a stated two-pronged operation against ISIL, also known as ISIS, and Kurdish-led forces.
A Reuters witness in Karkamis, a town on the Turkish side of the border, heard jets and artillery bomb Syrian targets.
Some observers believed fighting the IS was not the priority of Turkey, saying that Ankara fears the advance of Kurdish forces in northern Syria toward Jarablus, as the city was the next target of the Kurdish groups, which made sweeping advances against IS in northern Syria, near the Turkish borders.
The Observatory said rebels backed by Turkish tanks fought until dawn against rival militias allied to the SDF around Al Amarna. Images of other children shaking as doctors tried to treat them for the burns were posted on social media sites.
Regarding “the PYD (Democratic Union Party) terror group in Syria, we have just the same determination”, Erdogan said, referring to the main pro-Kurdish party in northern Syria and its YPG militia.
The fighting indicates Turkey is entering into a new and more unsafe phase in Syria four days into operation “Euphrates Shield”.
Military officials said PYD had launched the rockets at two Turkish tanks operating 7 kilometers south of Jarabulus.
The US has said that the Kurds should hold off and that it would not back them with air power if they moved further.
“Turkey didn’t come to fight ISIS, they came to fight us”, said Derwish, who is an ethnic Kurd and served past year as the spokesman for Kurdish forces in the Syrian town of Kobane.
Much of the heaviest fighting this summer has focused on second city Aleppo, which is roughly divided between rebel forces and President Bashar al-Assad’s troops.
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The Observatory said 11 buses were in Daraya to continue the evacuation.
