FRANCE, US WARN VS USE OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS IN WAR-TORN SYRIA

PARIS— French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Donald Trump vowed there would be “no impunity” in the event of further chemical weapons use in Syria in a telephone call Friday.

The leaders also urged Russia to put “maximum pressure” on its ally Damascus to commit to a UN ceasefire, warning of an increasingly dire humanitarian crisis in war-torn Syria.

But France’s and the United States’ ally Turkey killed at least 14 fighters deployed by the Syrian government in support of Kurds in the northwestern enclave of Afrin, a monitor said Friday.

Kurdish rebel spokesperon in Afrin, Birusk Hasakeh, said Turkish warplanes targeted the positions of fighters linked to the Syrian army in Jamma, causing casualties, but did not provide a precise toll.

Heavy losses

Three Kurdish fighters were also killed in the strikes late Thursday in Jamma, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Turkey suffered heavy losses in Afrin on Thursday with eight soldiers killed and 13 wounded, bringing Turkey’s death toll to at least 40.

‘Utmost care’

The Observatory says more than 140 civilians have been killed in Turkish bombardment, but Turkey denies the claim and says it takes the “utmost care” to avoid civilian casualties.

Meanwhile, Macron “stressed there will be a firm response in the case of proven use of chemical weapons leading to the death of civilians, in close coordination with our Ameri- can allies,” a statement from the French presidency said.

“France and the United States will not tolerate impunity.”

The rising pressure on Damascus and its key ally Moscow comes after new reports last weekend of suspected chlorine use in the battered rebel-held enclave of Eastern Ghouta.

France has repeatedly warned that evidence of further use of chemical weapons in Syria is a “red line” that would prompt French strikes in a brutal seven-year conflict that has drawn in foreign powers from Russia to Turkey.