Turkey urged to show restraint as battle in Syria ready to ‘explode’
France’s top diplomat and the US defence secretary have urged Turkey to exercise restraint in its battle against a Syrian Kurdish militia as the Turkish military pressed its operations in north Syria for the fourth straight day.
Foreign Minister Jean-yves Le Drian said intense fighting between Turkish troops and the Us-allied Kurdish militia in recent days was a sign new conflicts could erupt in the region as the Islamic State (IS) group was defeated.
He warned that without a political solution to the multi-sided Syrian civil war, the region could again explode with conflicts “just as dramatic” as the war on IS.
His statement mirrored comments by US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis, who warned the fighting was distracting from the war on terror and disrupting humanitarian relief efforts.
“The violence in Afrin disrupts what was a relatively stable area of Syria,” Mr Mattis said, while travelling in Asia. “It distracts from the international efforts to ensure the defeat of Isis.”
Turkey’s Operation Olive Branch against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, in northern Syria is straining relations with its Nato allies.
The US military is a partner of the YPG and operates bases in Kurdish-controlled territory in northern Syria.
Turkish police have arrested at least 55 people in a sweep against alleged supporters of the YPG inside Turkey.
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu yesterday announced a second Turkish soldier was killed in Operation Olive Branch.
Turkey said the YPG – a group it considers a terrorist organisation – was an extension of an outlawed Kurdish rebel group that it was fighting inside its own borders.
The group said the organisation had found common cause with Syrian opposition groups who viewed the YPG as a counter-revolutionary force in Syria’s intricate civil war.
Turkey said it aimed to create a 20-mile deep “secure zone” in Afrin – a Kurdish-controlled enclave on its border.
As Turkey’s military and allied Syrian forces pressed their campaign, Turkey shelled a city in north-eastern Syria.
YPG spokesman Nureddine Mehmud said Turkey fired on Qamishli and other towns along the Syrian-turkish border on Tuesday, calling it a diversion from the main campaign in Afrin, which lies along a separate part of the frontier. There were no reported casualties.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Monitoring group said at least 24 civilians, 24 Kurdish fighters and 25 Turkishbacked Syrian militiamen have been killed in the clashes in Afrin since Saturday.