BEIRUT: Syrian activists say Turkish forces and allied Syrian fighters have shelled northern Syrian villages controlled by a Kurdish militia, killing a woman and two children.
The Kurdish-run Hawar news agency said on Tuesday that the overnight shelling struck an area near Afrin, a Kurdish-controlled enclave. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an activist-run monitoring group, says the overnight shelling wounded 10 others and hit over a dozen villages.
Turkey’s private Dogan news agency said Turkish artillery units responded after the border region came under fire from the Kurdish-controlled Parsa Mountain area, across from the Turkish town of Kilis, late on Monday.
Turkey considers the main Syrian Kurdish militia, which is a key US ally against Daesh, to be an extension of the Kurdish rebels in its southeast. Turkish Defence Minister Fikri Isik said on Tuesday that Turkey may launch a cross-border operation into Afrin if it constitutes a “constant security threat.”
Turkey says it may launch a cross-border operation into the Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin in northern Syria if it constitutes a “constant security threat”.
Defence Minister Fikri Isik told state-run television TRT on Tuesday that Turkey’s military will continue to respond to the “slightest fire” into Turkish territory from Afrin. He spoke hours after reports that Turkey’s military retaliated overnight to fire from areas controlled by Syrian Kurdish groups.
Turkey considers the main Syrian Kurdish militia, which is supported by the United States, to be an extension of Kurdish rebels fighting in Turkey. The US views the Syrian Kurds as the most effective ground force battling Daesh in Syria.
Last year, Turkey sent troops into Syria to help Syrian opposition forces battling to oust Daesh militants from another border region and to curb the territorial advances of the Syrian Kurdish militia.
Isik said: “We would not abstain from doing what is necessary if Afrin becomes a constant security threat.”
