BEIRUT (Dispatches) – Turkish troops and U.S.-backed Kurdish militants exchanged heavy shellfire on Tuesday in the northern Syrian border town of Kobani, leaving one civilian dead as the conflict between the warring parties escalated.
The artillery fire hit within the town and around its edges, starting overnight and intensifying throughout the day, according to residents and the semi-autonomous local administration governing the town.
The administration said in an online statement that at least one child died due to the shelling and others were wounded.
Ankara sees the semi-autonomous system — spearheaded by Kurdish factions and governing swathes of northern and eastern Syria — as a national security threat on its border.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has pledged a new incursion to create a 30-kilometer safe zone in northern Syria, swallowing up Kobani and other towns held by the U.S.-backed so-called Syrian Democratic Forces.
Kobani has been relatively calm since Daesh terrorists were pushed back from the town in 2015.
But shelling and drone attacks have been ramping up in many border towns. At least three Kurdish commanders were killed last month which the SDF blamed on Ankara.
Dilvin, a shopkeeper and married mother of one, said scenes of chaos broke out in Kobani when the shelling intensified on Tuesday.
“People started running everywhere, cars everywhere, people asking about their friends and their family. Then the sounds started to build, the sounds were everywhere,” she told Reuters by phone from Kobani.
“There was so much screaming. So much fear. Now everyone is locked up at home,” said Dilvin, who preferred to identify herself with just a first name for security reasons.
Damascus, which already has severed ties with Ankara, has protest Turkey’s incursion as a violation of its sovereignty.
The leader of Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) has given support to the recent statement by Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, who had indicated his country’s plan to mend relations with neighboring Syria.
“Turkey’s steps toward Syria are valuable and accurate. No one living in this country, regardless of their origin or sect, is [an outsider] or the enemy of our country,” Devlet Bahceli said in a written statement released on Monday.
He emphasized that Syrians are brothers of the Turkish people, having strong ties based on history, culture and faith.
Raising the level of Turkey’s talks with Syria to the level of “political dialogue, and in this context, the removal of terrorist organizations from every geographical area where they are nested, is likely to be one of the issues on the political agenda ahead, and it is even worthy of serious consideration,” Bahceli said.
“It is our sincere desire and hope that the atmosphere of normalization will prevail in every area and with every neighbor by 2023. What the vast geography that we live on tells us is living by embracing, not fighting, is the only option. The only political will to achieve this is the People’s Alliance,” the veteran Turkish politician said.