Syrian rebels advance on Kurds as Turkish strikes kill 35

Turkey’s army killed at least 35 civilians in Syria on Sunday as it pushed deeper into the Syrian territory along the Turkish border, seizing land controlled by US -backed forces on its fifth day of a cross-border, USA -backed campaign against both the Kurdish YPG militia and the Islamic State group.

This would close off the broad band of land used by Daesh and other insurgent groups to smuggle arms and men from Turkey into Syria as well as link up the eastern Kurdish holdings with the western enclave and give the PYD control of 90 per cent of Syria’s frontier with Turkey, leaving only the section in northern Idlib province in pro-Turkish insurgent Jaish al-Fatah hands.

It also reported another 15 civilians killed and 25 wounded, many seriously, in Turkish air strikes near the town of Al-Amarneh, also south of Jarabulus.

“All possible measures are being taken to prevent harm to the civilian population living in the area and the maximum sensitivity is being shown on this issue”, the army said, quoted by Anadolu.

The SDF, which is spearheaded by the YPG, a Syrian Kurdish militia, has been lauded by both Russian Federation and the West as one of the most effective forces fighting Isis, and has received extensive USA support.

Also on Sunday, Twitter accounts belonging to Turkish-backed Syrian rebel groups claimed to have “liberated” a village called Amarnah, near Jarablus, from the USA -backed SDF.

Sunday’s clashes came a day after a rocket attack on two Turkish tanks killed a Turkish soldier and injured three others. He said the bombing also targeted Amarneh village.

Syrian state news agency SANA reported that 20 civilians were killed and 50 wounded in Turkish artillery shelling and airstrikes, calling it Turkish “encroachment” on Syrian sovereignty under the pretext of fighting IS.

The Turkish-backed forces first seized the Syrian border town of Jarablus from Islamic State militants before pushing south into areas held by Kurdish-aligned militias.

The operation started as an effort to push the so-called Islamic State out of the Syrian city of Jarabulus, but officials have been vocal about the twin aim to oust Kurdish militias the government views as terrorists.

The YPG is believed to have fired rockets at two Turkish tanks six or seven kilometers south of Jarablus as Turkish-backed rebels were advancing south, Anadolu said.

Turkish officials say their goal in Syria is to drive out Islamic State but also to ensure that Kurdish militia fighters do not expand the territory they already control along Turkey’s border.

Our correspondent said the Turkish army has been “shelling and launching air strikes” in areas controlled by the YPG.

The Homs Local Council appealed to the United Nations envoy to Syria to negotiate a truce for al-Waer, condemning the government’s “siege policy” that aims to force residents and local fighters to surrender. Turkey is a leading backer of the rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar Assad.

“These are areas that Turkey has asked the YPG to pull out of”. Rebels linked to the Kurdish Worker’s Party, PKK, have been fighting for autonomy inside Turkey for decades, and a two-year cease-fire fell apart last year.

“No corridor, period. No separate entity on the Turkish border”, said Biden in a press conference on Wednesday, adding that “elements that were part of the Syrian Democratic Forces. must move back across the [Eurphrates] river”.