The blast came just hours after a Syrian Kurdish group called for retaliation against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for sending Turkish forces into the country this week.
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Should the terror group build an expansive buffer zone around Al-Rai, it would ensure itself prolonged presence on the border and prove to be a considerable hurdle in the way of the Turkish-led invasion aimed at securing a corridor between Azaz and Jarablus. The YPG militia has successfully recaptured swathes of land from ISIS but Ankara is wary of the group seeking to carve out its own de-facto state on Turkey’s southern border.
It called the raids “a risky escalation”, and said there had been injuries.
The Rojava Defense Units released photos of the aftermath of the alleged attacks Thursday, though claims that chemical weapons were used have yet to be corroborated.
Above all, Ankara seeks to avoid Kurdish forces linking up their strongholds along the border.
The SDF had previously advanced to within a mile of Jarablus after driving Isis out of swathes of northern Syria in recent months, including the key city of Manbij.
The rebels fighting with Turkish support are hostile to the YPG, with the sides clashing repeatedly since previous year.
The surprise incursion to capture the town of Jarablus was a dramatic escalation of Turkey’s role in Syria’s war. The US military operates out of – and in cooperation with – Turkey, but is also backing Turkey’s bitter enemy, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG.
The Turkish-backed offensive comes four days after a suicide bomber suspected of links to the group killed 54 people at a Kurdish wedding in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.
Any action against Kurdish forces in Syria puts Turkey at odds with its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally the United States, which backs the SDF and YPG, seeing them as the most reliable and effective ally in the fight against Islamic State in Syria. Turkey is also aiming to contain the expansion by Syria’s Kurds, who have used the fight against IS and the chaos of Syria’s civil war to seize almost the entire stretch of territory along Syria’s northern border with Turkey. They are now pushing their way south.
He said the local fighters were Arabs allied with the Kurds. That progress worries Turkey’s government, and caused a rift between Turkish and U.S. officials over Washington’s backing for the group.
Kurdish forces said they were intent on protecting their territories.
Turkish security sources said two F-16 jets bombed a site controlled by the Kurdish YPG militia, which is part of the broader US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) coalition.
It vowed to stand its ground.
United States officials said the Turkish and Syrian rebel fighters were being supported by the US-led anti-ISIS coalition with drone surveillance and military advisers. A Turkish army tank stationed overlooks the Syrian border, in Karkamis, Turkey, Saturday, Aug. 27, 2016. The Turkish Red Crescent has distributed food in Jarablus since Friday, the sources said.
Kurdish groups in Syria accuse Turkey of singling out its fighters which Ankara views with suspicion due to its ties to Turkey’s Kurdish insurgency.
Biden, in Turkey Wednesday to smooth relations as Ankara demands extradition of a USA -based cleric it accuses of plotting last month’s failed coup, echoed Erdogan’s call on the Kurds to leave Arab lands in Syria and return east of the Euphrates to traditional Kurdish territory. Biden warned Kurdish forces they would lose USA support if they did not move east of the Euphrates River following Turkey’s move into Jarablus.
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Turkish troops fired on YPG fighters south of Jarablus on Thursday (August 25).
