Turkey denies truce with Syrian Kurds despite lull

ISTANBUL: Turkey on Wednesday denied a US claim it had agreed a truce with a Kurdish militia targeted as part of its week-old intervention in Syria but Turkish-backed fighters confirmed a lull in the fighting.

In an unprecedented operation, Turkey sent tanks into Syria to help Arab rebels clear the border area of Islamic State (IS) jihadists and halt the westward advance of a US-backed Kurdish militia, which Ankara sees as a terrorist group.

The assault on the Kurdish-led forces has sparked international concern and Washington had said on Tuesday that the two sides had agreed to a ceasefire.

But Ankara dismissed this claim, which was corroborated on the Kurdish side. Presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said a truce was “out of the question.”

“They will remain our target unless they retreat east of the Euphrates,” he said, repeating Turkey’s demand that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) a Western-backed anti-IS coalition dominated by the Kurdish People’ Protection Unit ( YPG), retreat to the northeast.

While Ankara maintained a defiant tone, one of the rebel factions fighting alongside Turkey said the combat had eased.

“It has been calm since yesterday on the Jarabulus southern front against SDF forces,” Ahmed Othman, a commander of the “Sultan Murad” faction told Agence- France Presse -an account corroborated by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

‘ Terrorist targets’

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said on Wednesday that Turkey’s operation would continue “until terror elements are completely neutralized and threats to our border, soil and citizens are over.”

But in the past 48 hours, Turkish forces concentrated their firepower on IS, whose strategist Abu Mohamed al-Adnani was killed in an air strike claimed both by the US-led anti-IS coalition and Russia.

Turkish media reported clashes Tuesday with IS west of the border town of Jarabulus taken from the jihadists last week on the first day of the intervention.

Turkish warplanes conducted air strikes against “terrorist” targets in the area on Tuesday and Wednesday, the state-run Anadolu agency said, referring to IS.

‘Unacceptable’

Turkey sees the YPG as an offshoot of the rebel Kurdistan Workers’ Party ( PKK), which is waging a bloody insurgency against security forces in Turkey’s southeast.

In the past few months, Turkey has watched in alarm as the PKK’s Syrian Kurdish allies advance on the other side of the border, fearing their territorial expansion will strengthen the PKK.

The US has, by contrast, been backing the YPG with training and equipment.

Washington described weekend clashes between Turkey and the pro-YPG forces as “unacceptable” and urged them to concentrate on combating IS.

Turkish media reported that Ankara summoned the US ambassador to protest the criticism.

A spokesman for the Turkish foreign ministry, however, told Agence-France Presse that there was only a “phone call” to the ambassador, John Bass.