U.S., France to Turkey: Limit attacks against Syrian Kurds

BEIRUT — France and the United States on Tuesday urged Turkey to exercise restraint in its offensive against a Kurdish-held enclave in northern Syria, where the U.N. says an estimated 5,000 people have been displaced by the fighting.

Turkish troops and allied Syrian fighters pressed ahead with their operations in Afrin for the fourth day, approaching from three sides and meeting stiff resistance from the U.S.-allied Kurdish militia that controls the enclave.

The U.N. said most of the displaced are still inside Afrin because Kurdish forces are preventing civilians from leaving and Syrian government forces are keeping them out of adjacent areas. International aid groups have no presence in Afrin, which is surrounded by Turkey and rival Syrian forces.

The U.N. said at least 323,000 people reside in Afrin, nearly half of whom have fled from other parts of Syria. Local officials put the number at 800,000.

On Tuesday, the Kurdish militia, known as the People’s Defense Units or YPG, regained control of a village breached by Turkish forces. The Turkish forces were also repelled from a hill they seized a day earlier on the eastern edge of the district.

The YPG is a key U.S. ally against the Islamic State, also called ISIS, and played a major role in driving the extremists from much of northern and eastern Syria. The U.S. military operates bases in Kurdish-controlled territory in northern Syria but not in or near Afrin.

Ankara views the YPG as a threat because of its links to the decades-old Kurdish insurgency in Turkey. Turkey says it aims to create a 20-mile deep “secure zone” in Afrin, which is in northwestern Syria near the border.

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke Tuesday with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, expressing his concern about the operation, according to a statement from Macron’s office.

He stressed the importance of seeking a lasting political solution for Syria alongside fighting ISIS and ensuring the delivery of humanitarian aid.

At least 27 civilians, including eight children and four women, have been killed in the fighting in Afrin, mainly in Turkish airstrikes, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that monitors the civil war.