BEIRUT: Dozens of people were killed in Turkish bombardment in Syria on Sunday as Ankara ramped up its unprecedented offensive inside the country against the militant Islamic State (IS) group and Kurdish fighters.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said at least 40 civilians had been killed in Turkish shelling and air strikes on two areas held by pro-Kurdish forces in northern Syria, the first report of significant civilian casualties in Turkey’s operation.
But Ankara said its raids had killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” and that the army was doing everything to avoid civilian casualties.
The bombardments came after Ankara suffered its first military fatality in the offensive against IS and the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia it launched on Wednesday.
The SOHR said at least 20 civilians were killed and 50 wounded in Turkish artillery fire and air strikes on the village of Jeb el Kussa early on Sunday.
Another 20 were killed and 25 wounded, many seriously, in Turkish air strikes near the town of Al Amarneh, it added.
The monitor also said at least four Kurdish fighters had been killed and 15 injured in Turkish bombardment of the two areas.
A spokesman for the local Kurdish administration said 75 civilians had been killed in both villages. But the Turkish army said it had killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” from Turkey’s outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Syria’s YPG, state-run Anadolu news agency said.
“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.
According to the SOHR, the bombardment targeted an area south of the former IS border stronghold of Jarabulus, which Turkish-led forces captured on the first day of the incursion.
Turkish-backed rebels say they have captured at least nine towns and villages, including Jarabulus, from IS and Kurdish forces since Wednesday.
In a statement on Saturday, Kurdish forces accused Ankara of seeking to “expand its occupation” inside Syria.
The latest fighting is likely to raise deep concerns for Turkey’s Nato ally the United States, which supports the YPG as an effective fighting force against IS.
Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist group and has fiercely opposed its bid to expand into areas recaptured from IS.
Published in Dawn, August 29th, 2016
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