100,000 flee their homes in Syria as Turkey presses on with its cross-border offensive on Kurdish-held areas.
Turkey intensified its air and artillery strikes in northeast Syria on Friday in an offensive against Kurdish militia that has raised the prospect of a humanitarian disaster and questions about US President Donald Trump’s policy in the region.
As Turkey presses on with its cross-border offensive, at least 100,000 Syrians have fled their homes and have taken shelters in schools and buildings of Hassakeh city and Tal Tamer. At least 11 civilians have died. Humanitarian groups say the number of people affected will rise further. Dozens of fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and pro-Turkish factions have been killed.
The first death of a Turkish soldier was confirmed by Turkey’s military.
The Kurds, who recaptured swathes of northeastern Syria from Islamic State with the backing of the United States, say the Turkish assault could allow the jihadist group to re-emerge as some of its followers were escaping from prisons.
In its first big attack since the assault began on Tuesday, Islamic State claimed responsibility for a deadly car bomb in Qamishli, the largest city in the Kurdish-held area, even as the city came under heavy Turkish shelling.
Five Islamic State fighters fled a jail there, and foreign women from the group being held in a camp torched tents and attacked guards with sticks and stones, the Kurds said.
On Thursday, Turkish troops partly encircled the towns of Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad.
But while the Turkish military said its operation was going to plan, Kurdish sources and activists from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the offensive had not made much progress.
Turkish warplanes have struck targets in both towns, and video footage has shown columns of smoke rising above them. Tal Abyad’s only public hospital has been forced to close.
Much of the region has been outside the control of the Syrian government as a consequence of the civil war which began in 2011. It has been controlled by the SDF since 2015. The SDF have been key allies of the US in the battle against the Islamic State (IS) group but Turkey regards the Kurdish militias of the SDF as “terrorists” who support an anti-Turkish insurgency.
Turkey defended its offensive as a bid to create a “safe zone” free of Kurdish militias which could also house Syrian refugees. “We will not stop it no matter what anyone says,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday. Erdogan dismissed criticism of the assault and said it “will not stop, no matter what anyone says.”
Turkey opened its offensive after Trump spoke by phone on Sunday with Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan and withdrew US troops who had been fighting alongside Kurdish forces.
On Friday, US military officials denied accusations by lawmakers and policy analysts that the Trump administration had abandoned US allies to a Turkish military onslaught. Turkey says its aim is to defeat the Kurdish YPG militia, which it sees as an enemy for its links to insurgents in Turkey.
“Nobody green-lighted this operation by Turkey, just the opposite. We pushed back very hard at all levels for the Turks not to commence this operation,” US Defense Secretary Mark Esper told a news briefing, responding to criticism that Trump had given Turkey a tacit “green light” for its attack.
U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Trump had made the right decision to move US soldiers out of harm’s way.
Sanctions have been demanded by Republican congressional critics of Trump’s policy but it was unclear how effective they might be when Ankara had already committed troops to the incursion. agencies