Turkish forces advance in Syria as US troops come under fire
AKCAKALE, Turkey (AP) — Turkish forces faced fierce resistance from
U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish fighters on the third day of Ankara’s
offensive in northern Syria as casualties mounted, international
criticism of the campaign intensified and estimates put the number of
those who fled the violence at 100,000. In a complicating twist,
Washington said its troops also came under fire from NATO ally Turkey.
No
U.S. troops were hurt in Friday’s explosion at the small U.S. outpost,
and the artillery strike marked the first time a coalition base was in
the line of fire since Turkey’s offensive began.
U.S. officials
said the Americans have vacated the post on a hill outside the town of
Kobane, and added that a large base in the town was not affected by the
shelling. The officials spoke anonymously because they were discussing
an ongoing military operation.
Turkey said the U.S. was not
targeted and its forces were returning fire from Kurdish fighters about
half a mile from the U.S. outpost. The Turkish Defense Ministry said it
ended the strike after communicating with the U.S.
Navy Capt. Brook DeWalt, a Pentagon spokesman, says the explosion
came within a few hundred meters of the area where U.S. troops were.
The
artillery strike so close to American forces showed the unpredictable
nature of the conflict days after U.S. President Donald Trump cleared
the way for Turkey’s air and ground invasion, pulling back U.S. forces
from the area and saying he wanted to stop getting involved with
“endless wars.”
The decision drew swift bipartisan criticism that
he was endangering regional stability and risking the lives of Syrian
Kurdish allies who brought down the Islamic State group in Syria.
Earlier,
Turkey said it captured more Kurdish-held villages in the border
region, while a hospital in a Syrian town was abandoned and a camp of
4,000 displaced residents about 12 kilometers (7 miles) from the
frontier was evacuated after artillery shells landed nearby.
Reflecting
international fears that Turkey’s offensive could revive the Islamic
State group, two car bombs exploded outside a restaurant in the
Kurdish-controlled urban center of Qamishli, killing three people, and
the extremists claimed responsibility. The city also was heavily shelled
by Turkish forces.
Turkish shelling hit a prison holding IS
militants in Qamishli, Syrian Kurdish officials said. They shared a
video Friday showing a shell landing in the courtyard of what appears to
be a prison facility. Seconds later, a handful of men open doors and
seem to be trying to leave.
Kurdish fighters waged intense battles
against advancing Turkish troops that sought to take control of two
major towns along the Turkish-Syrian border, a war monitor said.
The
U.N. estimated the number of displaced at 100,000 since Wednesday,
saying that markets, schools and clinics also were closed. Aid agencies
have warned of a humanitarian crisis, with nearly a half-million people
at risk in northeastern Syria.
On Sunday, Trump cleared the way
for Turkey’s air and ground invasion after he announced his decision to
pull American troops from their positions near the border, drawing swift
bipartisan criticism that he was endangering regional stability and
risking the lives of Syrian Kurdish allies who brought down IS in Syria.
Trump
had said at the time that the estimated 1,000 U.S. troops were not in
harm’s way from the Turkish offensive. Rami Abdurrahman, head of the war
monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the U.S. base was on a
hill near the Kurdish-held town of Kobani, which had come under heavy
Turkish fire.
U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Washington is
not abandoning its Syrian Kurdish allies and pushed back hard for
NATO-ally Turkey not to launch the operation. He said U.S. troops are
still working with Kurdish fighters.
Despite the criticism, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country “will not take a step back” from its offensive.
“We will never stop this step. We will not stop no matter what anyone says,” he said in a speech Friday.
Plumes
of black smoke billowed Friday from the Syrian border town of Tal Abyad
as Turkey continued bombarding the area. The Turkish Defense Ministry
said the operation was progressing successfully.
Turkey considers
the Syrian Kurdish fighters to be terrorists linked to a Kurdish
insurgency inside Turkey and says the offensive is a counterterrorism
operation necessary for its own national security.
The Turkish
Defense Ministry said four of its soldiers have been killed since
Wednesday, with three wounded. Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said 342
“terrorists” — Ankara’s term for Syrian Kurdish militiamen — have been
killed so far. The figure could not be independently verified.
The Kurdish-led force said 22 of its fighters were killed since Wednesday.
The
Kurdish militia has fired dozens of mortars into Turkey in the past two
days, including Akcakale, according to officials in two provinces on
the Turkish side. They said at least 17 civilians were killed in the
shelling, including a 9-month-old boy and three girls under 15.
Mourners
in Akcakale carried the coffin of the slain boy, Mohammed Omar Saar, as
many shouted, “Damn the PKK!” referring to the Kurdish insurgent group
in Turkey linked to Syrian Kurdish fighters. The PKK is considered a
terrorist group by Turkey, the United States and other countries.
One
attack hit the town of Suruc, and a child in the town of Ceylanpinar
died of his wounds Thursday night, the Anadolu Agency reported.
On the Syrian side, seven civilians have been killed since Wednesday, activists said.
Russian
President Vladimir Putin said he doubted the Turkish army has enough
resources to take control of prison camps in the region housing Islamic
State detainees, and he fears the captured fighters “could just run
away,” leading to a revival of the militant group.
“We have to be
aware of this and mobilize the resources of our intelligence to undercut
this emerging tangible threat,” Putin said during a visit to
Turkmenistan.
The Syrian Kurdish forces had been holding more than
10,000 IS members, but they said they are being forced to abandon some
of those positions to fight the Turkish invasion.
Separately, NATO
Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged Ankara to exercise restraint,
although he acknowledged what he said was Turkey’s legitimate security
concerns about the Syrian Kurdish fighters.
In a news conference
with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu, Stoltenberg also
expressed concern that the offensive could jeopardize gains made against
IS. Cavusoglu said Turkey expected solidarity from its allies.
“It is not enough to say you understand Turkey’s legitimate concerns; we want to see this solidarity in a clear way,” he said.
The
White House also put Turkey on notice it could face new “powerful
sanctions” and said the U.S. will “shut down the Turkish economy” if
Ankara goes too far. It didn’t elaborate.
Trump has expressed a
desire to pull troops out of the Middle East, saying earlier this week
he didn’t want America involved in endless wars in the region. Still,
U.S. officials said Friday they were deploying dozens more fighting jets
and additional air defense to Saudi Arabia to defend it against Iran.
The
Turkish operation aims to create a corridor of control along Turkey’s
border that clears out the Syrian Kurdish fighters. Such a “safe zone”
would end the Kurds’ autonomy in the area and put much of their
population under Turkish control. Ankara wants to settle 2 million
Syrian refugees, mainly Arabs, in the zone.
Syrian Kurdish
authorities said they were evacuating about 4,000 people in the Mabrouka
camp, west of Ras al-Ayn, because of artillery fire. Aid groups say
there was no direct hit on the camp, located 12 kilometers, or 7 miles,
from the border.
Doctors Without Borders said the fighting forced
it to shut down a hospital it supports in the border town of Tal Abyad
serving more than 200,000 people because most of the residents had to
leave, including the medical staff and their relatives.
The group
said aid groups had to suspend or limit operations in the al-Hol camp,
home to more than 70,000 women and children located 50 kilometers (30
miles) from the Turkish border, as well as the Ain Eissa camp.
___
El
Deeb reported from Beirut. Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in
Ankara, Turkey, Zeynep Bilginsoy in Istanbul and Lolita C. Baldor in
Washington, D.C., contributed.