The Kurds have accused Ankara of using the US-led coalition against IS as a cover to attack the YPG in northern Syria. “Turkey shamelessly and openly backs IS and al-Qaeda terrorists against Kurdish freedom fighters”, Sadi Pria, a top Iraqi Kurdish official has been quoted as saying.
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In a statement on Friday, the Turkish military said one of its tanks was hit by ISIL fighters around 12:20pm local time, near the Syrian town of Tel el-Hawa.
The Free Syrian Army and the Turkish Armed Forces have liberated around 100 villages and Jarabulus from the IS militants since the beginning of the operation. In view of the growing animosity, Turkey’s move to attack YPG in the northern Syria can be seen as an attempt to prevent the creation of an autonomous Kurdish territory along its border with Syria.
Turkey last month sent tanks across the Syrian border to help rebels retake Jarablus, a key IS-held border town, and to contain the expansion of a Syrian Kurdish militia.
Turkey wants to establish a safe zone in the 91km area stretching from Jarablus to Azaz to the west and says it will continue with the cross-border operation until “all terrorist elements are eliminated” from the region.
As ISIS starts to run out of nearby territory, the next likely targets are to be Kurdish territory along the Euphrates River, with Turkey making repeated demands for the Kurdish YPG to cede all territory west of the river, and rejecting United States claims that the Kurds have already done so.
Turkey’s operation is also targeting the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia, which Ankara regards as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has waged a 32-year insurrection inside Turkey. Turkey has spent more than $10 billion on Syrian refugees.
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He said Turkey has intelligence reports that the militants, who plan to exterminate the Turkomans living in Iraq’s north, have concentrated in northern Mosul and Iraqi city of Tal Afar, adding that this is inadmissible for Turkey.
