Turkish warplanes hit Kurdish fighters

Offensive raises fears of sparking new hostilities.

ISTANBUL — Turkish warplanes carried out airstrike against Kurdish fighters in Syria on Saturday to open a long-anticipated offensive on Afrin, an enclave for the Kurdish militias backed by the United States.

The offensive has raised fears of sparking a new round of hostilities between the various powers with interests in northern Syria, including Russia and the United States.

Turkish leaders have framed as part of its wider battle against the Kurdish separatists in southwest Tur- key, known as the Kurdis- tan Workers’ Party. But Tur- key also fears any gains in strength for the Syrian Kurds, whose territory runs along some of Turkey’s south border.

Syria had warned that it was prepared to fire on Turkish warplanes in the event of an attack on Afrin, about 12 miles from Turkey’s southern border.

In the past few days, the Trump administration had urged Turkey not to pursue the attack, arguing it amounted to a distraction from the ongoing battle against Islamic State militants in their remaining strongholds in Syria.

Washington is both allied with NATO partner Turkey and the Syrian Kurds as a proxy force against the Islamic State. There are roughly 2,000 U.S. troops in northern Syria,

The airstrikes on Satur- day followed days of intense Turkish artillery fire on Kurd- ish positions, according to activists in Afrin.

Turkey’s state news agency also reported that Syrian rebels allied with Turkey were advancing on Afrin, but those reports could not be immediately confirmed. There were no reports of Turkish troop movements.

Turkey’s government had named the offensive “Operation Olive Branch,” according to a military statement, which asserted that the Turk- ish military action was aimed both at Kurdish militias as well as the Islamic State.

“We are taking these steps to ensure our own national security, as well as of our 13 million Syrian brothers and sisters, who are displaced,” President Recep Tayyip Erdo- gan said, according to the semiofficial Anadolu agency.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses his supporters in Kutahya, western Turkey, on Saturday. Erdogan repeated that a Turkish offensive against the Syrian Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin was “de facto” underway.