OVER 60,000 DISPLACED BY TURKEY ASSAULT ON SYRIA 5 killed, including baby, in Kurdish shelling on Turkey
Two British IS fighters in US custody
Turkey's military offensive on northeastern Syria has displaced more than 60,000 people in less than a day, a war monitor said Thursday.
"Since Wednesday, more than 60,000 people fled border areas," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that most of the displaced travelled east towards the city of Hasakeh.
Rami Abdel Rahman, the head of the Britain-based monitor, said the biggest displacement was from the border areas of Ras al-Ain, Tal Abyad and Derbasiyeh.
The Turkish military, supported by Syrian proxies, launched an offensive against Kurdish-controlled areas in northeastern Syria on Wednesday, despite widespread international warnings.
After an initial phase of air strikes and artillery fire, troops moved across the border and attacked some of the key towns in the area.
Ankara aims to create a buffer about 30 kilometres deep in Syria territory in which to send back some of the 3.6 million Syrians who found refuge on Turkish soil since the start of the war in Syria in 2011.
Also, At least 16 Kurdish fighters have been killed as Turkish ground forces assaulted towns in northeastern Syria. American troops had withdrawn from Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ain on Monday prior to the launch of the Turkish offensive. WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has said that two Britons, who are accused of being part of an Islamic State (IS) terror group cell which kidnapped and murdered Western hostages, have been taken out of Syria to "a secure location controlled" by Washington, it was reported on Thursday. According to US media reports, El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Kotey, who are from London, are in the custody of the American military, the BBC reported.
The two were part of the IS cell dubbed "The Beatles" because of their British accents. The group also included Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, who was killed in a US air strike in 2015, and Aine Davis, who has been jailed in Turkey.