Ahead of Russia summit, Turkey claims Kurds fire at army in Syria
Kurdish sources contradicted the Turkish account, saying it was the Turks who first fired mortars on Afrin both from Idlib and inside Turkey.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan 24) - US-backed Kurdish forces fired howitzers at one of Turkish military observation posts in Syria's northwestern Idlib Province, claimed state-funded media on Monday as Russia prepares to host a peace summit with probable Kurdish participation.
The government's Anadolu Agency cited a security source it could not name due to press restrictions on officials.
Kurdish ANHA news agency from Syrian Kurdistan contradicted the Turkish account, saying it was the Turks who first fired mortars both from Idlib and inside Turkey.
In retaliation on the post in Idlib, where al-Qaeda affiliates rule, five rebels were killed, said Kurdish sources.
Idlib is south to the isolated Kurdish enclave of Afrin, controlled by the People's Protection Units (YPG) since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2011.
YPG has not confirmed or denied any attack on Turkish army there.
The report came as Moscow prepares to host the regime, the opposition as well as, despite Ankara's harsh rejection, the Kurds, in Sochi in a summit whose date it has not specified yet.
Turkish army crossed into Idlib in early October, claiming to monitor a cease-fire between the Syrian regime and its armed Islamist opponents.
The two primary backers of Damascus, Iran, and Russia along with the sponsor of the opposition Turkey are guarantors of the deal reached in Astana.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly threatened an invasion of Afrin; the self-declared canton made up of some 360 villages surrounded by Turkey from the north and the west with its east and south remaining under Ankara-backed rebels.
Afrin's foreign affairs council released a statement after the skirmishes, accusing the Turkish army of occupation in Syria and cooperation with al-Qaeda's Jabhat alNusra branch.
"Erdogan says YPG should leave Afrin. YPG are the children of this land and they are protecting their country," the statement read, calling on the international community to intervene.
A fact sheet published last week by YPG put the number of Turkish attacks on Afrin since the beginning of the year at 576.
The Kurds said Turkish UAVs crossed the border 66 times while helicopters staged assaults another six times.
In total 12 civilians, among them, a 14-year-old child and a pregnant woman died in those attacks while 21 others were wounded, it said.
Erdogan is set to meet with his Iranian and Russian counterparts Hassan Rouhani and Vladimir Putin on Wednesday in the hope of making progress in peace talks.
Editing by Sam A.