Turkey pushed ahead with its incursion into northern Syria last night, all but surrounding two key border towns as the United States said that Turkish forces were operating within the “rules” demanded by President Trump.
Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain, the first targets, were subjected to heavy shelling from across the Turkish border and warplanes bombed targets in the 20-mile “safe zone” outlined by President Erdogan and in the strategically significant town of Ain Issa, a short distance beyond the zone.
The Turkish troops, backed by Syrian rebel fighters, seized villages near Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ain as well as two military bases that had been used by US troops supporting the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Kurdish officials said yesterday that 60,000 civilians, mainly from Ras al-Ain, Tal Abyad and Kobani, had already fled before the invading army. Witnesses in the towns said that there was an eerie air of calm, punctuated by occasional blasts.
The SDF fought back, with both sides losing between 10 and 20 fighters, according to some reports. Monitors said that eight Syrian civilians and several enemy fighters had been killed in the offensive. Turkey said that it had “eliminated” 174 “terrorists”.
Last night a senior US state department official said that Turkey was so far operating within parameters set by Mr Trump, but would be penalised if it engaged in “inhumane and disproportionate” action including “ethnic cleansing” and “indiscriminate” targeting of civilians. “We haven’t seen significant examples of that so far,” the official said. The state department added that the president had instructed diplomats to seek a ceasefire and find “areas of commonality between the two sides”.
Mr Trump implied that he had discussed the limits of the Turkish operation with Mr Erdogan. “I say hit Turkey very hard financially and with sanctions if they don’t play by the rules!”
He later said: “We have one of three choices: Send in thousands of troops and win Militarily, hit Turkey very hard Financially and with Sanctions, or mediate a deal between Turkey and the Kurds!”
Civilian casualties were reported in Tal Abyad, Ras al-Ain and Qamishli, the de facto capital of northeastern Syria. Refugees poured across a bridge linking Syria and Iraq, east of Qamishli, desperate to escape the violence.
“When we came, there were about four lanes of cars on the road and a one kilometre queue of cars,” Murad Hassan, a Syrian Kurd from the town, said.
SDF fighters retaliated by firing mortar bombs into Turkish border towns, killing at least six civilians, including a baby boy and three girls under the age of 15, according to Turkish officials.
President Trump had ordered US troops to be pulled out of the two bases on Sunday night after a telephone conversation with Mr Erdogan; a decision interpreted by the Turks and others as a “green light” for the military operation, named Operation Peace Spring.
Diplomats in the region say that they are unclear how far Mr Erdogan will push on. He has expressed his determination to seize the whole 300-mile border area, an action regarded as highly ambitious and potentially disastrous, both for western efforts to fight Islamic State and possibly for Mr Erdogan himself.
The Turkish president responded angrily to calls from across the Middle East and particularly Europe for him to halt the offensive. Federica Mogherini, the EU foreign affairs chief, added her voice to concerns expressed by Britain and France, saying that the fighting would “further undermine the stability of the whole region, exacerbate civilian suffering and provoke further displacements”.
She indirectly criticised Mr Erdogan’s pledge to use the planned “safe zone” to re-settle up to two million Syrian refugees at present in Turkey, saying that refugees should return to their place of origin and that “any attempt at demographic change would be unacceptable”.
Mr Erdogan’s reaction was immediate. “If you try to label this operation as an occupation, we will open the gates and send 3.6 million refugees your way,” he warned her.
He was similarly aggressive over criticism from Egypt, which he described as a “democracy killer”, and Saudi Arabia, which he told to “look in the mirror”; a reference to the war it is waging in Yemen.
Some of the shells fired yesterday landed close to an Assad-regime enclave in Qamishli. “A child was injured and a car and two houses burnt in shelling on Sekarka village near Qamishli,” Ahmed Biro, a local journalist, said. “Bashiriyeh neighbourhood was hit, a man was severely injured and then died, and a woman was injured too.”
Kurdish sources said that a convoy containing members of the Raqqa civic council, run by Kurds and Arabs, was bombed by Turkish warplanes north of the city yesterday. Images of the strike published online showed rescue workers carrying away injured people.
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/world/turkey-steps-up-bombing-of-kurdish-positions-in-northern-syria-g88fr0x5n
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