The shelling targeted YPG positions in and around Menagh Air Base, near the village of Manaq in the south of the town of Azaz.
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The U.S. military is working closely with Kurdish forces in northern Syria, where they have delivered some of the most decisive and lasting blows to Islamic State extremists.
Rebel commanders accuse the YPG, which has been the most effective partner with the US on the ground in the struggle against the Islamic State in Syria, of assisting a government assault on the nearby and strategically important town of Tell Rifaat, where on Saturday women started to arm themselves to form a loosely coordinated battalion.
He also said Aleppo, Syria’s second biggest city, had been under siege since last week, when the humanitarian aid corridor between Turkey and the city was cut off by a Russian-backed government offensive.
But the fighting on the ground, which has sent tens of thousands of people fleeing toward the Turkish border where they continue to sleep in the open air, has accelerated.
He said that Russia has been waiting for a reason to unleash severe punishment on Turkey since the Turkish Air Force shot down a Russian Su-24 bomber in 2015.
The French foreign ministry said it was concerned at the “worsening situation” around the besieged city of Aleppo and elsewhere in northern Syria.
However, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said said two fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces – a coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters – had been killed and seven others were wounded in the shelling.
Turkey’s prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, confirmed that the country’s forces have struck Kurdish YPG militia targets in northern Syria, and have demanded the group withdraws from the area it has recently captured. “With Russian air activity in the area, Turkey’s options are limited”. “Let’s be clear about what this agreement does”.
Anatolia news agency reported that the Turkish military hit Syrian government forces on Saturday, adding that the shelling had been in response to fire inflicted on a Turkish military guard post in Turkey’s southern Hatay region.
US Senator John McCain said the Munich deal would only empower Moscow’s “military aggression”.
“As I have said, the link between the YPG and the [outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party] PKK is obvious”.
As the fighting continued, the Syrian army urged citizens in Deraa province, the Ghouta area east of Damascus, and in rural districts east of Aleppo to quickly seek out “reconciliation” with the government.
The PKK has carried out an insurgency against the Turkish government for decades.
Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said also said Saturday that Saudi Arabia is “ready to send both jets and troops” to Turkey’s Incirlik air base.
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USA officials said they have looked into each case and found no evidence that any arms or ammunition it has given directly to Syrian Kurdish forces to fight Islamic State have been smuggled into Turkey to be used against Turkish security forces.
