Ankara has repeatedly shelled Kurdish positions in northern Syria from within Turkey, but now Turkish-backed Syrian fighters and Turkish units within Syria have been involved in direct fights with SDF forces.
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Turkish forces and Kurdish militias have reached an agreement to stop fighting each other, Colonel John Thomas, spokesman of the USA military command in the Middle East, said on Tuesday.
The U.S. initially provided close-air support to the Turkish advance, but it was withdrawn after two days as elements of the Free Syrian Army, another opposition group backed by the U.S.as well as Turkey, reportedly moved south of Jarablus to take several villages.
Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters walk on the rubble of damaged shops and buildings in the city of Manbij, in Aleppo Governorate, Syria, August 10, 2016.
Both councils are allied with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a USA -backed alliance of groups including the powerful Kurdish YPG militia that is fighting Islamic State insurgents and has expanded along Syria’s frontier with Turkey.
The YPG is the military wing of the Democratic Union Party, or PYD, which Turkey calls a terrorist organization.
Washington said the offensive by its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally risked undermining the fight against Islamic State because it was focusing on Kurdish-aligned militias.
Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic said US criticism of the scope and aims of its offensive in northern Syria is “unacceptable” and that it has summoned the USA ambassador over the issue.
U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said the period of calm had lasted 12 to 18 hours and the United States would like it to continue so that all members of the coalition could focus their efforts on fighting Islamic State militants.
Hollande, in a diplomatic speech Tuesday, said “multiple, contradictory interventions carry the risk of a general inflammation” of the fighting that has devastated the country.
Turkey’s push south, however, has angered the U.S., an ally to both Ankara and Syrian Kurdish militias.
In recent months, the USA -led allied Kurdish forces gained control of most of the territory along the Turkey-Syria border, reinforcing the ethnic group’s aspirations for a contiguous autonomous region there.
Sharfan Darwish, a spokesman for the Manbij Military Council, said a ceasefire between Turkey and the Jarablus Military Council was holding.
The Jarablus Military Council subsequently said the temporary ceasefire was “under the oversight of the worldwide coalition led by the United States”.
“There is no truce and no ceasefire”.
“If they (Turkey) want to fight through (into Manbij) they’ll take more casualties”, he said calling the M60 tanks deployed by Turkey “museum pieces” that are vulnerable to roadside bombs.
In response, Turkey’s foreign ministry criticised the comments coming from U.S. officials and reminded Washington about the promise of keeping PYD and YPG east of Euphrates river. He added that Islamic State forces are no longer located in the areas where clashes are taking place.
In launching Operation Euphrates Shield, Turkey said it had the backing and cooperation of the US-led anti-ISIL coalition, despite Ankara also saying it meant to clear the border area of Kurdish forces.
“For the Kurds the entire conflict has been about establishing a quasi-state of their own within Syria; for Turkey it is now about preventing such an outcome”.
This means that Turkish forces aren’t necessarily going to always be in a position to attack Kurdish forces, even when they’re moving toward that end, though all indications from their side today are that United States demands that they stop fighting aren’t actually being listened to, and the pause is purely coincidental.
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Turkey, meanwhile, said it killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” in strikes on Sunday.
