Turkey, which is also battling Kurdish insurgents on its own soil, sent tanks and troops into Syria on Wednesday to support its Syrian rebel allies.
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Turkish air strikes and artillery attacks have killed at least 40 people, mostly civilians, and wounded dozens more in a single attack, according to a group monitoring the Syrian war and rebels.
A Turkish soldier was killed and three others were injured in a rocket attack by the USA -sponsored YPG terror group, launched against two Turkish tanks taking part in the military offensive against DAESH in the northern Syrian town of Jarablus.
The Jarablus Military Council, affiliated with the U.S-backed Kurdish-led Syria Democratic Forces, said the Turkish airstrikes marked an “unprecedented and unsafe escalation” that “endangers the future of the region”.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 50 people had been wounded in the attack south of Jarabulus, in an area controlled by militias allied to the Kurdish-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
Hayyan, a doctor and Homs resident whose parents remain in the al-Waer neighbuorhood, said the government launched 18 air strikes on Saturday, the last two of which dropped incendiary bombs. Since then, Syrian rebels have been pushing westward, chasing the Islamic State, as well as southward into areas controlled by forces aligned with the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.
But Ankara said its raids had killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” and that the army was doing everything to avoid civilian casualties.
The Syrian government and its Russian ally are the only ones operating helicopters over Aleppo.
This latest push by Turkey threatens to further split the rebels.
After last week’s invasion of northern Syria and the capture of the city of Jarabulus away from ISIS, Turkish officials were quick to insist that their real target was primarily the Kurds.
Yesterday, Turkish forces ramped up their offensive, with Turkish warplanes and artillery pounding areas held by pro-Kurdish forces close to a town liberated from IS recently.
Both Turkey and Syrian rebels say the YPG, as part of the SDF, has been targeting their forces. Some 200 soldiers from mechanized units and 150 Special Forces soldiers are involved in the operation, which is still ongoing after it secured its first aim of liberating the Syrian town of Jarablus from ISIL.
Control of Daraya is a boost to Assad’s forces and increases security to the capital, his seat of power.
Hours earlier, Ankara announced the first death of a Turkish soldier in the military operation it launched into northern Syria on August 23 – saying he was killed amid escalating fighting between Turkish ground forces and the YPG.
Hundreds of fighters and their families were bused north into rebel-held territory in Idlib province, with other civilians transferred to government territory near Damascus for resettlement.
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Officials Admit that both expelling the Kurdish YPG from all territory west of the Euphrates River and scaling back Kurdish territory in the far northeast of Syria are major parts of the conflict.
