Turkey Expects Swift Campaign Against Kurds in Syria
ANKARA (Dispatches) – Turkey shelled targets in northern Syria on Monday and said its three-day-old operation against Kurdish YPG fighters who control the Afrin region would be completed swiftly.
Turkish forces and their Syrian allies began their push to clear YPG fighters from the northwestern enclave on Saturday, opening a new front in Syria’s war despite calls for restrain.
YPG spokesman Birusk Hasaka said clashes between Kurdish and Turkey-backed forces persisted on the third day of the operation. He said Turkish shelling had hit civilian areas in the northeast of the Afrin region.
Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist organization with ties to Kurdish militant separatists within Turkey, and it has been infuriated by U.S. support for the fighters. Washington, which is backing the YPG in the battle against Daeshin Syria, said on Sunday it was concerned about the situation.
At least 18 civilians have been killed in the Turkish military campaign, a monitor group reported Sunday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths occurred in Afrin and surrounding villages, as Turkey started its offensive on Saturday by airstrikes and shelling and commenced its ground incursion on Sunday.
Kurdish activists said 11 civilians, including six children and women, were killed and 16 others wounded on Sunday in Afrin by the Turkish fire.
The Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, said four of its fighters were killed as well as 10 fighters of the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) since Saturday when the Turkish-backed forces attempted to storm several border villages of Afrin.
An official in the YPG, Mahmoud Bardakhan, declared on Sunday the beginning of a "revolutionary campaign against the Turkish enemy" and FSA, which is involved in the Turkish campaign against Afrin.
Meanwhile, Kurdish activists said intense battles raged between the YPG and the Turkish army on the outskirts of the Adama town in the countryside of Afrin after the attempt of the Turkish army to advance in the town.
For his part, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Sunday that the "Turkish aggression on Afrin cannot be separated from the Turkish policies undertaken since the first day of the Syrian crisis to support terrorism and the terrorist groups in Syria."
Turkey's military operation in Afrin aims to deal a strong blow to the Kurdish fighters and weaken their growing influence in northern Syria near Turkey.
The operation came particularly after the Kurdish forces defeated the Daesh in Syria's northern province of Raqqa, and when the U.S. is forming 30,000-strong border forces from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and other Kurdish militants in northern Syria.
Turkish soldiers and tanks are pictured in a village on the Turkish-Syrian border in Gaziantep province, Turkey January 22, 2018.
Turkish forces and their Syrian allies began their push to clear YPG fighters from the northwestern enclave on Saturday, opening a new front in Syria’s war despite calls for restrain.
YPG spokesman Birusk Hasaka said clashes between Kurdish and Turkey-backed forces persisted on the third day of the operation. He said Turkish shelling had hit civilian areas in the northeast of the Afrin region.
Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist organization with ties to Kurdish militant separatists within Turkey, and it has been infuriated by U.S. support for the fighters. Washington, which is backing the YPG in the battle against Daeshin Syria, said on Sunday it was concerned about the situation.
At least 18 civilians have been killed in the Turkish military campaign, a monitor group reported Sunday.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the deaths occurred in Afrin and surrounding villages, as Turkey started its offensive on Saturday by airstrikes and shelling and commenced its ground incursion on Sunday.
Kurdish activists said 11 civilians, including six children and women, were killed and 16 others wounded on Sunday in Afrin by the Turkish fire.
The Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, said four of its fighters were killed as well as 10 fighters of the Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA) since Saturday when the Turkish-backed forces attempted to storm several border villages of Afrin.
An official in the YPG, Mahmoud Bardakhan, declared on Sunday the beginning of a "revolutionary campaign against the Turkish enemy" and FSA, which is involved in the Turkish campaign against Afrin.
Meanwhile, Kurdish activists said intense battles raged between the YPG and the Turkish army on the outskirts of the Adama town in the countryside of Afrin after the attempt of the Turkish army to advance in the town.
For his part, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said Sunday that the "Turkish aggression on Afrin cannot be separated from the Turkish policies undertaken since the first day of the Syrian crisis to support terrorism and the terrorist groups in Syria."
Turkey's military operation in Afrin aims to deal a strong blow to the Kurdish fighters and weaken their growing influence in northern Syria near Turkey.
The operation came particularly after the Kurdish forces defeated the Daesh in Syria's northern province of Raqqa, and when the U.S. is forming 30,000-strong border forces from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and other Kurdish militants in northern Syria.
Turkish soldiers and tanks are pictured in a village on the Turkish-Syrian border in Gaziantep province, Turkey January 22, 2018.