Turkey Offensive in Syria: Kurds fight back invasion
60,000 flee in less than a day
Syria’s Kurds battled to hold off a Turkish invasion yesterday as thousands of civilians fled air strikes and shelling that deepened fears of a humanitarian crisis.
US President Donald Trump tried to justify the de facto green light he gifted his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for an assault seen as a blatant betrayal of Washington’s erstwhile Kurdish allies.
Syrian Kurdish forces lost 11,000 personnel and played a key role in the years-long battle to eliminate the “caliphate” the Islamic State group had set up in the region.
In scenes all too familiar since the start of Syria’s war more than eight years ago, civilians were seen abandoning their homes on Thursday, in vehicles or on foot with their belongings on their backs.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said more than 60,000 people had been displaced in less than a day.
“We’re heading to the countryside because we’re scared of renewed bombing and intensified clashes,” said Rizan Mohammad.
“We no longer feel safe,” added the 33-year-old, who was fleeing the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli with this family after it was hit by Turkish artillery attacks on Wednesday
The broad offensive -- which Erdogan dubbed “Operation Peace Spring” -- drew international outrage and warnings, including from within Trump’s own camp, and will be discussed in an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council today.
After launching the assault with air strikes and intense artillery fire, the Turkish military and its Syrian proxies crossed the border into Kurdish-controlled areas.
Yesterday, Turkish jets carried out fresh strikes, the Observatory and a Kurdish military official told AFP.
Fighting broke out in several locations along the roughly 120 kilometre (75 mile) wide front where operations are focused, the sources said.
Turkish forces and allied rebels captured seven villages in the area, the Observatory said.
Fighting mostly centred around Tal Abyad -- one of the main Kurdish-controlled towns in the area where Ankara wants to set up a buffer zone stretching some 30 kilometres (20 miles) into Syria.