Much of the heaviest fighting this summer has focused on the second city of Aleppo, which is roughly divided between rebel forces and President Bashar al-Assad’s troops.
Advertisement
The monitor also said at least four Kurdish fighters had been killed and 15 injured in Turkish bombardment of the two areas.
AFP said Turkey on Saturday sent six more tanks into Syria as pro-Ankara forces pressed on with de-mining work in the Syrian town of Jarablus, captured from ISIS this week. Syrian Kurds have established a de-facto autonomous zone in northern Syria, and have expanded that zone – with help from USA airpower and special forces – as they’ve driven Islamic State militants from towns near the Turkish border.
Another faction fighting under the Syrian Democratic Forces banner, the Army of the Revolutionaries, demanded the US -led coalition explain the justification for the Turkish assault, and accused Turkey of supporting hardline Islamist groups, including the formerly Al-Qaeda affiliated Front for the Conquest of Syria.
The reported attack came a day after Turkey suffered its first death since it launched its first ground offensive inside Syria on Wednesday, backing up rebels who recaptured Jarabulus from the Islamic State terrorist militia.
The Turkish forces then launched a joint military offensive with the SDF in Jarablus in what they said was an operation against both the YPG forces and Takfiri Daesh terrorists. In contrast, American officials regard Kurdish fighters as far more effective in fighting ISIS.
Officials said one of the goals of this operation is to set up a “terror-free” zone – in effect a buffer zone – to ensure the safety of Turkish citizens living along the border. “That’s why we are in Jarablus, that’s why we are in Bashiqa (in Iraq)”.
USA officials in a Senate panel in the US congress in April admitted that there were links between the PKK and the Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its armed-wing, the People’s Protection Units (YPG). “We know the same face is behind all of them”. But the US also backs the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which have waged successful battles against the Islamic State and also seeks to depose Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Ankara said its raids had killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” and that the army was doing everything it could to avoid civilian casualties.
The Jarablus Military Council, an affiliate of the SDF, said their fighters were targeted, and described the attack as an unprecedented and risky escalation. The Kurdish-led militias said that they had left the area, but that groups aligned with them remained in charge. They have also moved west towards Islamic State areas.
SDF spokesman Shervan Darwish said the airstrikes and shelling began overnight and continued Sunday along the front line, killing many civilians in Beir Koussa and nearby areas.
In the meantime, the SDF-linked Jarabulus Military Council said on Saturday that Turkish air crafts bombed their positions and residential areas in the village of al-Amarna, southern Jarabulus.
The Kurdish Democratic Union Party condemned the attack on the village. Five buildings used by the Kurdish rebels also were destroyed, the military said.
Charles Lister, a senior fellow at the DC-based Middle East Institute, said Washington’s support for the latest offensive in Syria risked further complicating the intractable war.
The 25 Kurdish fighters were killed near Jarablus, a Syrian town on the Syrian-Turkish border, Sky News reported.
Advertisement
Syrian warplanes renewed their bombing of the besieged al-Waer neighborhood in the central city of Homs. Images of doctors treating other children for their burns were posted on social media sites. The Kurds wrested it from IS earlier this month. The group blamed Russian and Syrian joint military operations room for the use of such weapons in violation of worldwide law.
