Turkey to launch all-out assault on Kurds

TURKEY last night said it would press ahead with a full scale assault on a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria despite pleas from the US to hold back.

Ankara has been threatening for days to send its forces into Afrin, a Syrian city near the Turkish border controlled by Kurdish forces who are allied with the US but enemies of Turkey.

Troops shelled the area yesterday and Nurettin Canikli, the Turkish defence minister, said units of commandos were being moved near the border and pro-turkish Syrian rebel groups were mobilising for the attack.

“This operation will take place; the terror organisation will be cleansed,” he said.

“The operation has de facto started with cross border shelling.”

Last night, an all-out ground invasion did not yet appear to be under way. Turkey has in the past promised a major incursion into northern Syria but pulled back at the last minute. The apparent willingness to press ahead despite American objections illustrates the dire state of relations between Washington and Ankara.

Turkey has long fumed over the US allying itself with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) to fight the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil).

The US has found the Kurds to be effective allies against the jihadists but Turkey accuses them of carrying out terrorist attacks against its citizens.