Turkish troops shell Afrin to oust US-backed Kurdish militia US official calls the move destabilizing 20 buses carrying fighters cross over into Syria
SUGEDIGI, Turkey: Turkish artillery fired into Syria’s Afrin region on Friday in what Ankara said was the start of a military campaign against the Kurdish-controlled area.
The Turkish government has repeatedly warned that a full-scale operation against Syrian towns controlled by the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, including Afrin, is imminent.
Turkey has been angered by US military support for the Kurdish YPG-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which spearheaded the fight against Daesh in Syria, and by an announcement that the US would stay in Syria to train about 30,000 personnel in the swathe of eastern Syria under SDF control.
The cross-border bombardment took place after days of threats from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to crush the militia in Afrin in response to what Turkey sees as growing Kurdish strength across a wide stretch of north Syria.
“The operation has actually de facto started with cross-border shelling,” Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said, adding that no troops had undermine regional stability and would not help protect Turkey’s border security.
“We do not believe that a military operation serves the cause of regional stability, Syrian stability or indeed Turkish concerns about the security of their border,” the official told reporters, stressing he had limited information about Turkey’s reported military moves. “The kind of threats or activities which these initial reports may be referring to, we don’t think advance any of these issues. They are destabilizing.”
Direct military action against territory held by Kurdish militia would open a new front in Syria’s civil war and would see Ankara confronting Kurds allied to the US at a time when Turkey’s relations with Washington are reaching breaking point.
Reuters TV filmed Turkish artillery at the border village of Sugedigi firing on Friday morning into Afrin region, and the YPG militia said Turkish forces had fired 70 shells at Kurdish villages in Afrin starting at midnight.
Rojhat Roj, a YPG spokesman in Afrin, said it was the heaviest Turkish bombardment since Ankara stepped up threats to take military action against the Kurdish region. The YPG would respond with utmost force to any attack on Afrin, he said. “Till now, there are no casualties, all the damage is material so far,” he said.
But Canikli said Ankara was determined to destroy the Kurdish group. “All terror networks and elements in northern Syria will be eliminated. There is no other way,” he said.
“The operation in central Afrin may last a long time, but the terrorist organization will swiftly come undone there.”
Although Canikli said no Turkish troops have gone into Afrin, Turkish newspapers said 20 buses carrying Free Syrian Army (FSA) members crossed on Friday from Turkey into a Turkish-controlled part of northern Syria, on Afrin’s eastern flank.
They said the FSA fighters would deploy near the town of Azaz, where Kurdish shelling overnight struck a psychiatric hospital. The Turkish armed forces said several civilians wounded in the attack were taken to Turkey for treatment, and Turkish television footage showed rubble and damaged walls.
Turkey says the YPG is a terrorist group and a branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party, which has waged an insurgency in southeast Turkey for decades, and Canikli criticized Washington for its continued emphasis on countering Daesh.
The US State Department has called on Turkey to focus on the fight against Daesh militants and not take military action in Afrin. “The threat of Daesh has been removed in both Syria and Iraq. With this reality out in the open, a ‘focus on Daesh’ statement is truly a meaningless remark,” he said.
Erdogan had reacted with fury to the announcement of the US-backed border force on Syria’s northern frontier with Turkey, denouncing it as an “army of terror.”
The Pentagon said it does not plan to create an “army” and that the force is aimed at fighters from Daesh and maintaining stability in areas recaptured from the terrorists.
Ankara, however, said it was not satisfied with the US assurances.
Turkey needs the green light from Russia for a full cross-border operation because of Moscow’s military presence in the area.
In a surprise development, Turkey’s army chief Gen. Hulusi Akar and spy chief Hakan Fidan were in Moscow on Thursday for talks with Russian counterparts on security issues and Syria.