Turkey hits Syria militia for 3rd day
ISTANBUL: Turkey pounded Kurdish militia in northeast Syria for a third day yesterday, forcing tens of thousands of people to flee and killing dozens of people in a crossborder assault on US allies that has turned the Washington establishment against President Donald Trump.
The offensive against the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) led by Kurdish YPG militia, which began days after Trump pulled US troops out and following a phone call with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, opens one of the biggest new fronts in years in an eightyearold civil war that has drawn in global powers.
‘‘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!’’ Trump said on Twitter yesterday.
‘‘I hope we can mediate,’’ Trump said when asked about the options by reporters.
Trump said the US was ‘‘going to pos sibly do something very, very tough with respect to sanctions and other financial things’’ against Turkey.
The SDF has been the main ally of US forces in the battle against Islamic State since 2014. It has been holding thousands of captured IS fighters in prisons and tens of thousands of their relatives in detention.
SDF forces were still in control of all prisons with IS captives, a US State Department official said yesterday.
The US had received a commitment from Turkey on taking responsibility for IS captives, the official said.
US lawmakers and media have said Trump essentially gave Erdogan the green light for Turkey’s military to go into northeast Syria but the official disputed that.
‘‘We gave them a very clear red light. I’ve been involved in those red lights and I know the President did that on Sunday,’’ the official said.
Turkey’s Defence Ministry said 228 militants had been killed so far in the offensive. Kurds said they were resisting the assault. At least 23 fighters with the SDF and six fighters with a Turkishbacked Syrian rebel group had been killed, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The SDF said Turkish air strikes and shelling had also killed nine civilians. In an apparent retaliation by Kurdishled forces, six people including a baby were killed by mortar and rocket fire into Turkish border towns, officials in Turkey said.
The International Rescue Committee said 64,000 people in Syria had fled since the campaign began. The towns of Ras alAin and Darbasiya, about 60km to the east, have become largely deserted.
The Observatory said Turkish forces had seized two villages near Ras alAin and five near the town of Tel Abyad, while a spokesman for Syrian rebel forces said the towns were surrounded after fighters seized the villages around them.
A Turkish security official said the armed forces struck weapons and ammunition depots, gun and sniper positions, tunnels and military bases.
Jets flew up to 30km into Syria, a limit which Turkey’s foreign minister said Turkish forces would not go beyond. A Reuters journalist saw shells exploding just outside Tel Abyad.
Ankara brands the YPG militia as terrorists because of their ties to militants who have waged an insurgency in Turkey. Yesterday, Turkish police began criminal investigations of several Kurdish lawmakers and detained scores of people in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, accusing them of criticising the military’s incursion into Syria, state media reported.
Trump has faced rare criticism from senior figures in the Republican Party who accuse him of deserting loyal US allies. Trump has called the Turkish assault a ‘‘bad idea’’ and said he did not endorse it.
US Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican who usually backs Trump, has been one of the most outspoken critics. He unveiled a framework for sanctions on Turkey with Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen yesterday.
‘‘If there is any measure taken against us, we will retaliate and respond in kind,’’ Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.
After the UN Security Council met to discuss the fighting, the US ambassador to the UN said Turkey faced unspecified ‘‘consequences’’ if it did not meet its pledge to protect vulnerable populations or contain IS fighters.
Later, the US State Department official said the US would penalise Turkey if it engaged in any ‘‘inhumane and disproportionate’’ moves against civilians.