With cease- fire looming, fighting in Syria ramps up
Saudi jets arrive in Turkey to join coalition fighting Islamic State
While a cease- fire in Syria is supposed to take place by week’s end, the fighting is escalating and new parties, such as Saudi Arabia, are preparing to enter the fray.
The recent developments come after the United States and Russia brokered a truce agreement early Friday in Munich for a “cessation of hostilities” in Syria’s long- running civil war that could begin in a week.
On Sunday, Turkey announced the arrival of Saudi military jets that are set to join the U. S.- led coalition against Islamic State militants in Syria. Turkey and Qatar are considering sending ground troops into the fight, according to the Andalou News Agency.
In a letter to the United Nations Security Council on Sunday, Syria’s foreign ministry accused Turkey of shelling government forces in northern Syria and sending military supplies accompanied by gunmen into its country, according to the Al Arabiya television network.
Pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns were “accompanied by around 100 gunmen some of whom are believed to be Turkish forces and Turkish mercenaries,” the Syrian foreign ministry said.
Turkish artillery continued attacks for a second day Sunday on Syrian government forces and a Kurdish militia near the Turkish border.
Turkey has fired on the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, known as YPG, in the past and considers it a threat because it is linked to the PKK, a U. S.- designated terrorist group that fought a years- long insurgency for Kurdish independence in Turkey. But the YPG has received U. S. assistance in its fight against the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS.
State Department spokesman John Kirby on Saturday urged Turkey and the YPG to step back.
Christy Delafield, a spokeswoman for Mercy Corps, the humanitarian aid group, said Sunday that the group’s efforts to deliver food to residents in the besieged northern Syrian city of Aleppo “are threatened by an even greater escalation of violence in the last two days.”
The cease- fire should be implemented immediately, and not after giving fighters time to press their offensives, said Dalia Al- Awqati, Mercy Corps director of programs for north Syria.