SUNDAY STAR★TIMES World US troops in line of fire Syria
Turkish forces faced fierce resistance from United Statesallied Syrian Kurdish fighters on the third day of Ankara’s offensive in northern Syria yesterday as casualties mounted, international criticism of the campaign intensified, and estimates put the number of those who had fled the violence at 100,000.
In a complicating twist, Washington said its troops also came under fire from Nato ally Turkey. No US troops were hurt in the explosion at a small US outpost, but the artillery strike marked the first time a coalition base had been in the line of fire since Turkey’s offensive began.
US officials said the Americans had vacated the post on a hill outside the town of Kobane. A large base in the town was not affected by the shelling.
Turkey said the Americans were not targeted, and its forces were returning fire from Kurdish fighters near the outpost.
The artillery strike so close to American forces showed the unpredictable nature of the conflict days after US President Donald Trump cleared the way for Turkey’s air and ground invasion, pulling back US forces from the area and saying he wanted to stop the US getting involved in ‘‘endless wars’’.
The decision has drawn bipartisan criticism that he is endangering regional stability and risking the lives of Syrian Kurdish allies who brought down the Islamic State group in Syria.
Earlier, Turkey said it had captured more Kurdish-held villages in the border region, while a hospital in a Syrian town was abandoned and a camp of 4000 displaced residents about 12 kilometres from the frontier was evacuated after artillery shells landed nearby.
Reflecting international fears that Turkey’s offensive could revive Isis, two car bombs exploded outside a restaurant in the Kurdish-controlled urban centre of Qamishli, killing three people, and the extremists claimed responsibility. The city also was heavily shelled by Turkish forces.
Turkish shelling had hit a prison holding Isis militants in Qamishli, Syrian Kurdish officials said.
Kurdish fighters had waged intense battles against advancing Turkish troops trying to take control of two major towns along the Turkish-Syrian border, a war monitor said.
The United Nations estimated the number of displaced at 100,000 since Thursday, saying that markets, schools and clinics also were closed. Aid agencies have warned of a humanitarian crisis, with nearly half a million people at risk in northeastern Syria.
US Defence Secretary Mark Esper said Washington was not abandoning its Syrian Kurdish allies, and had pushed back hard for Nato ally Turkey not to launch the operation. He said US troops were still working with Kurdish fighters.
Despite the criticism, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country ‘‘will not take a step back’’ from its offensive.
‘‘We will never stop this step. We will not stop no matter what anyone says.’’
Plumes of black smoke billowed from the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad as Turkey continued bombarding the area. The Turkish Defence Ministry said the operation was progressing successfully.
Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish fighters to be terrorists linked to a Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey, and says the offensive is a counterterrorism operation necessary for its own national security.
The defence ministry said four Turkish soldiers had been killed since Thursday, and three wounded.
Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said 342 ‘‘terrorists’’ – Ankara’s term for Syrian Kurdish militiamen – had been killed so far. The figure could not be independently verified. The Kurdish-led force said 22 of its fighters had been killed.
The Kurdish militia had fired dozens of mortar shells into Turkey in the past two days, according to officials in two provinces on the Turkish side. They said at least 17 civilians were killed, including a ninemonth-old boy and three girls under 15.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said he doubted whether the Turkish army had enough resources to take control of prison camps in the region housing Isis prisoners, and he feared that the captured fighters ‘‘could just run away’’, leading to a revival of the militant group.
Syrian Kurdish forces have been holding more than 10,000 Isis members but are being forced to abandon some prison camps to fight the Turkish invasion.