Writing in the Daily Sabah newspaper, Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin accused the Syrian Kurds of working to expand a Kurdish autonomous region in northern Syria “under the cover of fighting Daesh (IS)”.
Advertisement
In a separate incident seven people were killed in air strikes on a hospital supported by Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) near Murat al-Numan in the northern Syrian province of Idlib, the charity’s France president said on Monday.
In one attack in the town of Azaz — less than five miles from the Turkish border in Aleppo province – a missile hit a children’s hospital and killed at least five people, the AP reports. Although Syria’s army is claiming the victories, rebels, military experts and videos by the fighters themselves say nearly all of the advances are being made by the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, the Iraqi Badr Brigade, Harakat al-Nujaba and other Iraqi Shiite militias that are sponsored by Iran.
Turkey’s opposition to the YPG and its political arm the Democratic Union Party (PYD) is also straining relations with the United States which supports the Syrian Kurds as effective fighters on the ground against Islamic State (IS) jihadists.
Analysts said Turkey was alarmed that the YPG has taken advantage of losses suffered by Arab rebel groups to gain new territory.
Since then, the SDF has mostly fought Islamic State and insurgent groups who are fighting to topple Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The Ministry noted that the pickups were accompanied with 100 gunmen, some of them are believed to be Turkish soldiers and Turkish mercenaries, adding that munitions supply operations into the Syrian Aazaz area continue.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Davutoglu repeatedly urged the USA over the past week to reconsider its “wrong” stance on the PYD, asking Washington to “choose its side”.
At the weekend Turkey’s army shelled Kurdish YPG militia targets in northern Syria after the group seized an air base north of Aleppo. He added that some 10 people were killed and many were wounded.
Also on Sunday, Iran’s air defense chief said his country is ready to help defend Syria’s airspace, marking the first time Iran has offered to assist with Syrian air defenses. He said that Turkey has allowed Saudi authorities to send their warplanes.
The PYD is the Syrian branch of the terrorist-declared PKK, which has targeted Turkish security forces and civilians since 1984.
There is no mood in Turkey for a war in Syria, but the risk of an unintended escalation is real, said Faysal Itani of the Washington-based Atlantic Council.
Advertisement
It went on citing Turkish attacks in more Syrian areas on the same day, saying that 12 pickups with DShK and 14.5 mm machine guns mounted on them had their way from the Turkish land into Syrian territory across Bab al-Salameh border crossing.
