Turkish troops enter Kurdish stronghold in north

ANKARA: Turkish-led forces began a street-by-street fight to capture the most important Kurdish-held town in northern Syria early Sunday, CNN-Turk television said, a crucial juncture in Turkey’s two-month-old campaign to expel US-backed Kurdish fighters from the border area.

Propelled by powerful allies, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has managed to reassert control over a large part of his country after seven years of war.

But the direct intervention of Turkey, which backed anti-Assad groups through much of the conflict, suggests the war is entering a dangerous new phase amid growing tensions among regional power-players including Russia, the US, Iran and Israel.

The US military has said Turkey’s offensive was slowing down the fight against Islamic State elsewhere in Syria as some senior leaders of Kurdish forces had turned their attention from that battle toward Afrin. Turkish authorities view the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which the US backs, as an extension of Turkey’s Kurdish PKK militants who have sought autonomy for decades. They want to push them from their border.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Thursday that the army would not leave Afrin “before the job is done,” and has signalled he could broaden the offensive into northeastern Syria, ultimately targeting PKK bases in Iraq to quash Kurdish aspirations for self-rule.

Turkish commandos have been fighting PKK militants in northern Iraq since last week, state-run TRT television reported Sunday.

Afrin is thought to have been heavily fortified with concrete tunnels and explosives, and while many civilians have fled, tens of thousands could be caught in a prolonged battle.

“The capture of Afrin would inflict a serious blow on the Kurds’ statehood ambitions along Turkey’s borders in Syria,” said Ali Serdar Erdurmaz, an analyst with the Hasan Kalyoncu University based in Gaziantep province, bordering Syria.

He said a Turkish victory in Afrin could prompt Erdogan to push the US to ensure that Kurdish fighters withdraw from the town of Manbij, to east of the Euphrates River.

The Turkish army denied on Saturday allegations that it was behind an airstrike on a hospital in Afrin that killed at least 10 people, distributing drone footage it said showed the hospital intact several hours after it was said to be attacked.

Turkey insists it is taking care to avoid civilian casualties.

Turkish troops have left a safe corridor from Afrin to allow civilians to leave the town if they want to.