Thousands flee Turkish invasion of Syria
TALL TAMR (AFP) — Thousands of civilians fled air strikes and shelling as Syria’s Kurds battled to hold off a Turkish invasion on Thursday, with fears mounting of a developing humanitarian crisis.
US President Donald Trump tried to justify the de facto green light he gave his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for an assault seen as a blatant betrayal of Washington’s erstwhile Kurdish allies.
Later Trump suggested that Washington could mediate between Turkey and Kurdish groups and a US official said Trump has asked American diplomats to broker a ceasefire.
But international condemnation of the Turkish assault was overwhelming and the response to the operation was discussed in an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council.
UN chief Antonio Guterres expressed “deep concern” over the violence, while the council’s five European members urged Turkey “to cease the unilateral military action.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called for an emergency meeting of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) group.
Syrian Kurdish forces lost 11,000 personnel and played a major role in the years-long battle to eliminate the “caliphate” IS had set up in the region.
In scenes all too familiar since the start of Syria’s war in March 2011, civilians were seen abandoning their homes Thursday, in vehicles or on foot with their belongings on their backs.
The UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs on Thursday estimated that 70,000 people have been newly displaced since Ankara launched its operation.
“We’re heading to the countryside because we’re scared of renewed bombing and intensified clashes,” said Rizan Mohammad, 33, who fled the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli with his family.
After launching the assault with air strikes and intense artillery fire on Wednesday, the Turkish army and its Syrian proxies crossed the border into Kurdish-controlled areas.
On Thursday, Turkish jets carried out fresh strikes, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and a Kurdish military official said.
Fighting broke out in several locations along the roughly 120 kilometer-wide front where operations are focused, they said.
Turkish forces and allied rebels captured 11 villages in the area, the Observatory said.
Fighting mostly centered around Tal Abyad — one of the main Kurdish-controlled towns in the area coveted by Ankara.
Clashes also raged around Ras al-Ain further west, the other main town in the zone that Turkish media reports say is the first goal of the offensive.
The Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources in Syria, said at least 29 fighters and 10 civilians have been killed since the start of the assault.