Turkey kills 11 Syrian Kurdish fighters: Army
An army press release said the Turkish assault was ‘retaliatory’ in response to rocket attacks on one of border posts in the Sanliurfa Province.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) - Turkish military killed at least 11 US-allied Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters in northern Syria, shelling from across the border.
An army press release said the Turkish assault was ‘retaliatory’ in response to rocket attacks on one of border posts in the Sanliurfa Province.
Turkish soldiers destroyed three rocket launchers and eight Russian-made DShK heavy machine guns used by the Kurdish forces.
YPG directed the rockets at around 16:00 local time on Thursday from an area near the town of Serekaniye in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) to the Aksoy military base in the Kurdish Ceylanpinar district of Sanliurfa.
The release by the Turkish general staff called the Kurdish YPG of being an "occupier" in Syria.
There was no immediate confirmation of the losses by Kurdish officials, though a statement on the YPG website counted numerous Turkish attacks on their positions since Tuesday.
The website said Turkish shelling also hit civilian areas and houses across Rojava from west to east in areas in the towns of Afrin, Kobani, Serekaniye, Tel Abyad, Amuda, and Derbasiye.
In response, the US-backed YPG destroyed five Turkish tanks, two of them German-made panzers, a radar machine and arms depots along the border.
Recent attacks come as Turkey heightened the tensions on Tuesday by conducting airstrikes on a YPG headquarters in Qarachokh mountain in NE Syria that killed 20 fighters and injured 18 others.
Similarly, Turkish airstrikes “by mistake” killed five Peshmerga soldiers of the Kurdistan Region in Shingal (Sinjar) in a campaign avowed to be against the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) affiliates in the war-stricken Ezidi area.
Turkey has friendly relations with the Kurdistan Region but considers America’s other Kurdish partners, the YPG, a “terrorist organization” for having ties with the PKK that is fighting the Turkish troops for larger Kurdish rights.
YPG has started a campaign for a no-fly-zone above Rojava after Turkish warplanes attacked their bases and called on the US to take “a clear stance” in the face of its NATO ally’s aggression.
A YPG spokesperson Redur Xelil told Kurdistan24 on Wednesday that the air strikes were a setback to the ongoing operation to capture the de facto IS capital of Raqqa.
The US State Department expressed “deep concern” over Turkish killing of partner Kurdish forces.
US Central Command whose military officials visited the struck YPG base on Wednesday condemned Turkey.
“Our partner forces have been killed by Turkey strike, they have made many sacrifices to defeat” CENTCOM spokesperson Col. John Dorrian said in remarks carried on Twitter.
Editing by Ava Homa