Turkish forces shell land controlled by Kurds, stopping attack on ISIS
Turkey shelled a Kurdish-held region of northern Syria yesterday, leading to a temporary halt in an offensive by Kurdish fighters against ISIS in eastern parts of the country.
The shells targeted the villages of Selim and Kor Ali west of Kobane, the Kurdish-run Hawar News Agency said, after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to destroy Kurdish militias east of the Euphrates River.
Hawar told The National that two Kurdish fighters belonging to the Self Defence Forces, an affiliate of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, were killed in the attack. The other two were civilians.
“We are going to destroy the terrorist structure in the east of the Euphrates,” Mr Erdogan told parliamentarians from his ruling Justice and Development Party on Tuesday.
“We have completed our preparations, plans, programmes regarding this issue.”
Yesterday’s attacks have led to a “temporary halt” in an offensive by SDF against ISIS in Syria’s eastern Deir Ezzor province, the SDF general command said.
“The continuation of these attacks will cause a long halt in our military campaign against ISIS,” it said.
The SDF said it responded to yesterday’s attack by destroying a Turkish military vehicle in Kobani.
“We have the right to retaliate against any attack on our lands,” the group said.
Yesterday’s assault was the second time Turkey has fired on Kurdish fighters from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the region over the past three days. Turkey considers the YPG an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has led an insurgency in Turkey for more than three decades.
The YPG has worked closely with the US in the fight against ISIS in Syria, straining relations between Washington and Ankara.
Earlier yesterday, US coalition warplanes targeted ISIS in its last holdout in eastern Syria, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
The SDF, meanwhile, continued to mass around the ISISheld Hajin before announcing a temporary halt to the assault.
The Observatory said that 700 special forces from the YPG and its female affiliate the YPJ had gone to front lines in the area in recent days.
Boosting their fighting power, local tribesmen from Deir Ezzor have also mobilised around the last ISIS pocket of territory. At least 2,000 members of Al Shaitat tribe, one of Deir Ezzor’s most prominent, are aiding the SDF’s efforts.
ISIS beheaded, crucified and shot more than 700 members of Al Shaitat tribe in Deir Ezzor in 2014, creating a bitter rivalry.
On Friday, ISIS launched a fierce attack against the SDF, forcing them to retreat from Hajin. The Observatory said about 70 SDF fighters were killed in the assault.
Iraq’s Shiite paramilitary groups yesterday said they killed two ISIS commanders who ordered last week’s attack on the SDF.
Ahmed Nasrallah, a commander for western Anbar, said on the umbrella group’s website that the Iraqi military had provided information on militants gathering near the Iraqi border.
Iraqi Shiite militias reinforced their side of the border area in response to Friday’s attack on the SDF, and Iraq’s military said it was ready to take on any militants who tried to cross.
The continuation of these attacks will cause a long halt in our military campaign against ISIS SDF GENERAL COMMAND