Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency said the army had killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” in air strikes as part of its unprecedented operation inside Syria. “Turkish sources say he was killed in an attack by [Kurdish] YPG fighters”. Col Ahmed Osman, head of the Sultan Murad rebel group, said his Turkish-backed force was “certainly heading in the direction” since YPG forces had fortified their positions rather than evacuate.
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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.
The Observatory said the bombardment targeted an area south of the former ISIS border stronghold of Jarabulus, which Turkish-led forces captured on the first day of the incursion.
Meanwhile, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory For Human Rights said on August 28 that overnight Turkish air strikes killed 20 civilians in Manbij and that at least 15 more civilians had been killed in villages across northern Syria on August 28 by Turkish artillery and tank fire.
Turkish airstrikes and artillery attacks in Syria have killed at least 35 civilians and wounded dozens more on the fifth day of Turkey’s cross-border campaign against Islamic State (Isis) and Kurdish forces, according to a monitoring group.
The latest fighting is likely to raise deep concerns for Turkey’s North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally the United States, which supports the Kurdish militia – known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG) – as an effective fighting force against IS.
Jeb el-Kussa is located 14km (9 miles) south of Jarablus and is controlled by local fighters with support from Kurdish forces.
The operation started as an effort to push the so-called Islamic State out of the Syrian city of Jarabulus, but officials have been vocal about the twin aim to oust Kurdish militias the government views as terrorists.
Ankara wants to force the Kurds to withdraw to the east of Euphrates River, stopping short of establishing a corridor to link two Kurdish-led areas in north-western Syria.
Turkish security sources said warplanes and artillery had hit Kurdish YPG militia sites south of frontier town of Jarablus and towards Manbij, a city captured by Kurdish-aligned SDF this month in a US -backed operation.
A Syrian rebel commander said on Sunday that Turkish-backed rebels aimed to capture Manbij. Instead of retreating to the east side of the Euphrates River outside Manbij, YPG in recent weeks has moved to expand westward in a new land grab, according to USA and Turkish officials.
Ankara’s military intervention in Syria has added another dimension to the country’s complex multi-front war, a devastating conflict that has killed more than 290,000 people and forced millions from their homes since it began in March 2011.
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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Fighting over the weekend continued in other parts of Syria. Reports said the helicopters belonged to the Syrian government.
