Syrian invasion sparks civilian crisis and terror revival fears

TURKEY stepped up its air and artillery strikes on Kurdish militia in northeast Syria yesterday, escalating an offensive that has drawn warnings of humanitarian catastrophe and turned Republican lawmakers against US president Donald Trump.

The incursion, launched after Trump withdrew US troops who had been fighting alongside Kurdish forces against Islamic State militants, has opened a new front in the eight-year Syrian civil war and drawn fierce international criticism.

In Washington, Trump – fending off accusations that he abandoned the Kurds, loyal allies of the US – suggested Washington could mediate in the conflict, while also raising the possibility of imposing sanctions on Turkey.

Turkish forces pushed deeper into north-eastern Syria yesterday, the third day of Ankara’s crossborder offensive against Syrian Kurdish fighters that has set off another mass displacement of civilians and met with widespread criticism from the international community.

Turkish warplanes and artillery struck around Syria’s Ras al Ain, one of two border towns that have been the focus of the offensive

Overnight, clashes erupted at different points along the border from Ain Diwar at the Iraqi frontier to Kobani, more than 400km to the west.

Turkish and Syrian Democratic Forces forces exchanged shelling in Qamishli among other places, the SDF’s Qamishlo said.

“The whole border was on fire,” he said.

A camp sheltering more than 7 000 displaced people in northern Syria is to be evacuated and there are talks on moving a second camp for 13000 people including Isis fighters’ familes, after both were shelled, Kurdish-led authorities said.

Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) said a hospital in Tel Abyad had been forced to shut after most of its staff fled from bombings over the past 24 hours.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said he was worried that the Turkish invasion in Syria could pose a threat of a terrorist revival in the region.

Speaking yesterday during a visit to Turkmenistan, Putin said that he doubted that the Turkish army had enough resources to promptly take control of the Isis prison camps, saying that he feared that captured Isis fighters “could just run away”.

He said in comments on Russian news agencies: “I’m not sure that the Turkish army could take this under their control this fast.”

Putin said that Russia was concerned about this threat: “We have to be aware of this and mobilise the resources of our intelligence to undercut this emerging tangible threat.”