US-backed Syrian Kurdish fighters say Turkish forces are poised to attack
US-backed Kurdish fighters in northern Syria say Turkish military vehicles are massing near the border for an expected assault that could derail their fight against ISIS in the east of the country and further strain relations between Ankara and Washington, its Nato ally.
People’s Protection Units (YPG) spokesman Nuri Mahmoud told The National that they were ready to intercept any attempt by Turkey to cross into the Kobani canton, east of the Euphrates River. Turkey on Wednesday killed at least four Syrian Kurds, including two fighters, and wounded six others when it shelled the villages of Selim and Kor Ali west of Kobani, according to the Kurdish-run Hawar news agency.
The attack came a day after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to destroy Kurdish militias east of the Euphrates. “We have completed our preparations, plans, programmes regarding this issue,” he told Justice and Development Party members in parliament. Turkey considers the YPG militia an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has led an insurgency in Turkey for more than three decades.
The US has worked closely with the YPG in the fight against ISIS in Syria, straining relations between Washington and Ankara. The US State Department on Wednesday expressed “great concern” over Turkey’s shelling of Kurdish forces. “Unilateral military
strikes into north-west Syria by any party, particularly because American personnel may be present or in the vicinity, are of great concern to us,” spokesman Robert Palladino said. The US has been in touch with Turkey and a Kurdish-dominated Syrian militia to emphasise the need “to de-escalate the situation,” he said.
Mr Palladino said the US was fully committed to Turkey’s border security, but at the same time expressed Washington’s commitment to the Kurdishdominated Syrian forces.
The campaign against ISIS “is not over and that fight remains difficult,” he said.
The threat of a Turkish assault comes at a time when hundreds of Kurdish fighters affiliated with the YPG and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have moved south from Kobani to Deir Ezzor province to battle ISIS in its last holdout near the Iraqi border. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Thursday that at least 100 more Kurdish fighters arrived in the area less than 24 hours after Turkey shelled positions in the north.
The SDF said on Wednesday it would temporarily halt its campaign against ISIS in protest over continued Turkish aggression in the Kobani region that the group said would further delay the offensive on the ISIS-held pocket Hajin.
The Syrian rebel-affiliated Step News Agency reported on Thursday that Kurdish forces are moving vehicles and heavy weaponry to Hassakeh, about 270 kilometres east of Kobani.