Turkey resumes strikes on Kurds
Fatalities reported as warplanes target enclave in Syria
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey resumed airstrikes in Syria’s Kurdish enclave of Afrin after a brief lull, killing and wounding several people, the military and Kurdish officials said Friday.
The attacks on border areas and the main town in the region began Thursday night and have been among the worst since the Turkish army and Ankara-backed opposition fighters began a ground and air campaign on the Afrin enclave three weeks ago, Kurdish officials said.
The offensive has displaced thousands of people, many of whom have gone to the town of Afrin that is already crowded with tens of thousands of displaced who fled violence in other parts of Syria over the years.
The new bloodshed came as Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed cooperating more closely to resolve the Syrian conflict in a phone call Friday. The civil war has killed about 400,000 people, displaced half the population and sent more than 5 million refugees mostly to neighboring countries.
In its statement, the Kremlin did not elaborate on the call between Putin and Macron. Russia has been one of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s strongest supporters, intervening in 2015 to tip the balance of power in his favor. France is among Assad’s harshest critics.
Macron’s office said he pushed for more robust peace talks — notably after a Russia-sponsored effort last month was boycotted by the Syrian opposition.
Macron also pressed Putin to stop “intolerable degradation of the humanitarian situation” in regions that have been pummeled by Syrian and Russian airstrikes in recent days, according to a statement from his office.
Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency said F-16 jets resumed bombing Thursday night, striking the northwestern enclave’s Mount Bafilun, the villages of Sheik Huruz and Kefer Jenne, and the regions of Sheran, Jinderes and Raju, among other targets.
Turkey’s military issued a brief statement Friday, saying its jets hit 19 targets, including shelters, ammunition depots and gun positions belonging
to “terror” organizations. All planes returned safely, the statement added.
Afrin-based Kurdish official Rezan Hiddo said by telephone that Turkish warplanes hit 23 points, adding that Turkey’s artillery in three areas near Afrin have been pounding the town.
“For the past 21 days, the Turkish army has been violating all laws related to war,” Hiddo said.
Separately, the Turkish chief of military staff, Gen. Hulusi Akar, and other commanders surveyed the operation from an airborne warning and control plane, the military said.
Unconfirmed Turkish media reports had said that Turkey halted flights after Russia closed the airspace over Afrin after militants shot down a Russian Su-25 fighter jet in Idlib province on Feb. 3. Russia effectively controls the skies over the northern region.
Anadolu and the private Dogan news agency later reported that Turkish troops and Turkey-backed opposition fighters cleared five villages of Kurdish fighters in the Afrin region.
Turkey launched its offensive into the enclave on Jan. 20 against Syrian Kurdish fighters that Ankara considers to be a security threat because of their links to outlawed rebels in Turkey.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the airstrikes targeted the town of Afrin and its outskirts, killing two people and wounding others.
The main Kurdish militia in northern Syria, known as the People’s Protection Units, said in a statement that airstrikes on the town and nearby villages since Thursday night have wounded at least three people.
Since Turkey began its attacks, 120 people have been killed, including 26 children and 17 women, according to a statement from the civil administration council in Afrin. The statement, read to reporters in the town Friday, added that 60,000 people have fled their homes, leading to a humanitarian crisis. It called on international aid organizations to help.
VICTIMS DEMAND JUSTICE
Separately, former Islamic State hostages and families of the group’s victims urged Britain and the United States to put two recently captured extremists on trial, arguing that denying them justice will fuel the hatred and violence they supported.
French journalist Nicolas Henin, who was held by the men and their comrades for 10 months, said he wants justice after the arrest of the two Britons, who were part of the notorious cell dubbed “The Beatles.” Henin said the men should be tried in the U.K., not shipped to Guantanamo Bay, because revenge will just breed more violence.
“What I’m looking for is justice, and Guantanamo is a denial of justice,” he said Friday. “There hasn’t been a single trial in 16 years there. … Guantanamo was actually one of the reasons for their engagement in extremism, in jihad. So if we perpetrate this kind of atrocity, we are not helping our quest for justice.”
U.S. officials have confirmed that El Shafee Elsheikh and Alexanda Amon Kotey, who grew up in London before traveling to the Middle East to join the Islamic State, were captured in early January in eastern Syria.
U.S. officials have interrogated the men, who were part of the Islamic State cell that captured, tortured and beheaded more than two dozen hostages, including American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and American aid worker Peter Kassig.
The two are believed to be linked to Mohammed Emwazi, the masked British insurgent known as Jihadi John who appeared in several videos that showed the beheading of Western hostages. The cell was nicknamed “The Beatles” because all four members had English accents.