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Turkish army forces and militants of the so-called Free Syrian Army (FSA), who enjoy Ankara’s patronage, on October 9 launched a cross-border offensive into northeastern Syria in a declared attempt to clear members of the so-called People’s Protection Units (YPG), a Kurdish militant group, from border areas. Iran News quotes the report.

Ankara regards the US-backed YPG as a terrorist organization tied to the homegrown Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militant group, which has been seeking an autonomous Kurdish region in the Anatolian country since 1984.

Ankara is seeking the establishment of a 32-kilometer “safe zone” totally clear from the presence of Kurdish militants in northeastern Syria. Turkey wants the area to be used for the relocation of two million Syrian refugees living in Turkey.

“Turkish forces quit Syria in case the last terrorist leaves the region. This is one dimension of the issue. Secondly, we will not quit before other countries leave. We are in favor of Syria’s unity and solidarity. We never want it disintegrated,” Erdogan told reporters on Friday when he was asked whether Ankara’s “Operation Peace Spring” would continue.

After seizing a 120-km swathe of land along the border, Turkey struck deals with the US and Russia to keep the Kurdish militants out of that so-called buffer zone.

On October 22, Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin signed a memorandum of understanding that asserted YPG militants must withdraw from the Turkish-controlled “safe zone” within 150 hours, after which Ankara and Moscow would run joint patrols within the area.

The agreement was reached hours before a US-brokered five-day truce between Turkish and Kurdish-led forces was due to expire.

The Turkish president further said if other states deployed troops in Syria to defend the integrity of the Arab country, “they have to prove it.” He emphasized that other countries, “neither Russia nor the US or Iran,” do not even share borders with Syria.

Erdogan’s remarks come as the Syrian government has repeatedly condemned the Turkish offensive as an act of aggression.

But Iran provides military advisory assistance to Syrian government forces in the fight against foreign-backed Takfiri terrorists at the formal request of Damascus.

Russian jets have also been carrying out air raids against militants in Syria at the Damascus government’s formal request since September 2015.

However, the US has been conducting airstrikes inside Syria since September 2014 without any authorization from Damascus or a UN mandate. Washington has repeatedly been accused of targeting and killing civilians. There are also about 1,000 US troops mostly taking positions near Syria’s oil fields after President Donald Trump’s recent order.

Furthermore, Iran, Russia, and Turkey act as the guarantors of an all-out ceasefire regime in Syria. Senior diplomats from the three countries have held several rounds of consultations with the Astana format amid efforts to find a political solution to the crisis in the Arab country.

The Turkish military has previously launched two cross-border incursions in northern Syria, namely the Euphrates Shield in August 2016 and the Olive Branch in January 2018, with the declared aim of eradicating Kurdish militants and Daesh Takfiri terrorists near Turkey’s borders.

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Ashamed of Washington’s role in making way for the Turkish army into Syria, senior members of US President Donald Trump’s own Republican Party condemned him for abandoning Syrian Kurds, who have been loyal allies of Washington in the fight against Daesh (ISIS or ISIL). Iran News covers the report of Tasnim.

NATO-ally Turkey has said it intends to create a “safe zone” in order to return millions of refugees to Syria. But world powers fear the Turkish action could exacerbate the conflict, and run the risk of Daesh prisoners escaping from camps amid the chaos.

“Our heroic commandos taking part in Operation Peace Spring are continuing to advance east of the Euphrates,” the Turkish Defense Ministry wrote on Twitter on Thursday, posting a video showing soldiers firing rifles in darkness as they advanced, Reuters reported.

A witness in the Turkish town of Akcakale said volleys of rockets were fired from there across the border into Syria’s Tel Abyad. Smoke rose from two targets hit on the Syrian side of the border, he said.

Turkish forces shelled targets near Ral al Ain on Thursday morning, and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters responded, another witness said.

The Turkish army has hit 181 targets of the Kurdish militia with its air force and artillery since the start of operation into northeast Syria, the ministry said.

One of the prisons where Daesh detainees are held was struck by a Turkish air strike, the SDF said on Twitter.

The US military has taken custody of two high-profile Daesh militants previously held in Syria by the SDF and moved them out of the country to a secure location, a US official said.

A second US official said they belonged to a group of British fighters nicknamed “The Beatles,” who have been tied to the murder of Western hostages.

Akcakale was quiet for much of the morning after sporadic gunfire and the sound of tank movement were heard in the early hours, Reuters journalists said. Explosions had rocked Tel Abyad earlier in the night, they said.

“Operation Peace Spring is continuing as planned across the border,” Turkey’s Vice President Fuat Oktay wrote on Twitter. Turkey regards the Kurdish militia as a terrorist group because of its links to Kurdish PKK militants waging a decades-old insurgency in southeast Turkey.

Troops entered Syria at four points, two of them close to Tel Abyad and two close to Ras al Ain further east, according to Turkish media reports.

Air strikes killed at least five civilians and three SDF fighters, while dozens of civilians were wounded, the SDF said. Thousands of people fled Ras al Ain towards Hasaka province, held by the SDF.

SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali said on Twitter that the group’s fighters had repelled a ground attack by Turkish troops in Tel Abyad.

SECURITY COUNCIL MEETING

The United Nations Security Council will meet on Thursday to discuss Syria at the request of the five European members, Britain, France, Germany, Belgium and Poland.

In a letter to the 15-member Council seen by Reuters, Turkey said that its military operation would be “proportionate, measured and responsible.”

The 22-member Arab League said it will hold an emergency meeting on Saturday.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Trump defended US policy towards Kurds, saying Washington had spent “tremendous amounts of money” arming and funding them.

“The Kurds are fighting for their land…As somebody wrote in a very powerful article today, they didn’t help us in the Second World War, they didn’t help us with Normandy as an example… But they were there to help us with their land, and that’s a different thing,” Trump said.

“With all of that being said we like the Kurds.”

But one of Trump’s closest fellow Republican allies, Senator Lindsey Graham, said failing to support the Kurds would be “the biggest mistake of his presidency” and unveiled a framework for sanctions on Turkey with Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen.

The Syrian Kurdish group was for years Washington’s main allies on the ground in Syria and the Turkish incursion was potentially one of the biggest shifts in years in the Syrian war that has drawn in global and regional powers.

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