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Fighting Escalates on Turkey-Syria Border, Endangering US Forces
| Wall Street Journal | - |
ISTANBUL—The
death of a Turkish soldier in the newest battlefront of the Syrian war
is stoking tensions between two U.S. allies, Turkey's military and
Syrian Kurdish rebels, heightening the risk to U.S.
Turkey's Military Plunges Into Syria, Enabling Rebels to Capture ISIS Stronghold
ENLARGE
ISTANBUL—The death of a Turkish soldier in the newest battlefront
of the Syrian war is stoking tensions between two U.S. allies, Turkey’s military and Syrian Kurdish rebels, heightening the risk to U.S. forces in the area and their common fight against Islamic State.
Syrian monitoring groups said that at least 70 people were killed over the weekend, mostly civilians, in the Turkish operations. The Turkish military said they killed at least 25 “terrorists,” and didn’t comment on the reported civilian deaths, except to say that commanders are taking all necessary measures to protect noncombatants. It wasn’t possible to independently verify the Syrian casualty figures or the identities of those killed.
Turkey’s military struck deeper into Syria with airstrikes and
artillery strikes on Sunday after the Turkish soldier died and three
others were wounded on Saturday when their tank unit came under attack
by Kurdish rebels, known as the YPG.
There was no comment from U.S. officials about the escalation of fighting between the two sides—both of which are U.S. allies. It was unclear what role, if any, the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, of which Turkey is a member, had in the air campaign over the weekend.
The clashes underscore the complexity of the coalition’s campaign to reverse Islamic State’s territorial hold in Syria. American special operations forces are embedded with the YPG and earlier this month helped them oust Islamic State from the town of Manbij, less than 20 miles from Saturday’s hostilities. In general, those U.S. special operations forces have close contact with their Turkish counterparts, and they rely on Turkey for their rear supply lines, according to people familiar with the situation.
The U.S. also supports the Turkish-led campaign launched last week with Syrian Arab fighters who are rivals of the YPG. The initial goal of the operation was to clear Jarablus, along the Syria-Turkey border, of Islamic State positions and mop up any fighters that escaped Manbij, which is approximately 20 miles further south.
Turkish officials have said the timing of the offensive, known as Operation Euphrates Shield, was related to the YPG’s broken promise given to the Americans and Turks that its units would withdraw from Manbij once it was liberated from Islamic State and allow local Arab-majority inhabitants to control the area. Instead of retreating to the east side of the Euphrates River outside Manbij, the YPG in recent weeks has moved to expand westward, according to U.S. and Turkish officials.
Turkey considers the YPG to be a terrorist group and has a declared national security objective to prevent the YPG from linking up its disparate territorial holdings in Syria into a larger autonomous region. Turkey sees the YPG as an armed affiliate of a domestic Kurdish militant group known as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has been fighting Turkish security forces for decades with the aim of achieving its own autonomous state.
Turkey wants to install the friendly Arab rebels fighting in its current operation along the Manbij-Jarablus corridor as a buffer against Kurdish groups. An estimated 1,000 Syrian Arab rebels are working with Turkey, which has at least 380 soldiers and 40 tanks inside Syria. Turkey handed over control of Jarablus to local Arabs after successfully ousting Islamic State last week.
On Saturday, some of the Syrian Arab units fighting with Turkish armor units said they were trying to seize a number of villages south of Jarablus when clashes with rival YPG units broke out. Clashes reportedly were fiercest around the village of Amarneh, around 5 miles south of Jarablus.
Two Turkish tanks came under attack by YPG fighters armed with antitank rockets around 4 miles south of Jarablus, according to the Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu. One soldier was killed—the first Turkish soldier to die in the conflict—and three others wounded, it said. It didn’t give any more details about the location of the attack.
Syrian groups that monitor fighting and civilian death tolls reported casualties on at least two battlefronts south of Jarablus as a result of the weekend clashes.
Aleppo24 said that at least 28 civilians died in Turkish airstrikes, including people in Amarneh and a family from the neighboring village of Saressat. It also said that at least 19 fighters had been killed.
A second monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said at least 70 civilians were killed and wounded in Turkish airstrikes and shelling in the village of Jab al-Kousa, more than 8 miles south of Jarablus.
Turkish officials didn’t respond to questions about locations of their airstrikes inside Syria or how many bombing raids were carried out. The state news agency reported that the Turkish Military Joint Special Task Forces and coalition airplanes targeted on Saturday an ammunition depot, barracks and a command center used by “terror groups” south of Jarablus.
A statement from Turkey’s military, reported by Anadolu, said that the offensive was being carried out in accordance with international law and the United Nations’ mandate of self-defense. Turkey has suffered several terror attacks at home this year believed to have been carried out by Islamic State and the PKK.
Fighting Escalates on Turkey-Syria Border, Endangering U.S. Forces
Tensions rise after the death of the first Turkish soldier along the newest battlefront of the Syrian war
ENLARGE
Turkish tanks return
from Syria to Turkey after a military operation at the Syrian border as
part of their offensive against the Islamic State.
Photo:
European Pressphoto Agency
Syrian monitoring groups said that at least 70 people were killed over the weekend, mostly civilians, in the Turkish operations. The Turkish military said they killed at least 25 “terrorists,” and didn’t comment on the reported civilian deaths, except to say that commanders are taking all necessary measures to protect noncombatants. It wasn’t possible to independently verify the Syrian casualty figures or the identities of those killed.
There was no comment from U.S. officials about the escalation of fighting between the two sides—both of which are U.S. allies. It was unclear what role, if any, the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, of which Turkey is a member, had in the air campaign over the weekend.
The clashes underscore the complexity of the coalition’s campaign to reverse Islamic State’s territorial hold in Syria. American special operations forces are embedded with the YPG and earlier this month helped them oust Islamic State from the town of Manbij, less than 20 miles from Saturday’s hostilities. In general, those U.S. special operations forces have close contact with their Turkish counterparts, and they rely on Turkey for their rear supply lines, according to people familiar with the situation.
The U.S. also supports the Turkish-led campaign launched last week with Syrian Arab fighters who are rivals of the YPG. The initial goal of the operation was to clear Jarablus, along the Syria-Turkey border, of Islamic State positions and mop up any fighters that escaped Manbij, which is approximately 20 miles further south.
Turkish officials have said the timing of the offensive, known as Operation Euphrates Shield, was related to the YPG’s broken promise given to the Americans and Turks that its units would withdraw from Manbij once it was liberated from Islamic State and allow local Arab-majority inhabitants to control the area. Instead of retreating to the east side of the Euphrates River outside Manbij, the YPG in recent weeks has moved to expand westward, according to U.S. and Turkish officials.
Turkey considers the YPG to be a terrorist group and has a declared national security objective to prevent the YPG from linking up its disparate territorial holdings in Syria into a larger autonomous region. Turkey sees the YPG as an armed affiliate of a domestic Kurdish militant group known as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, which has been fighting Turkish security forces for decades with the aim of achieving its own autonomous state.
Turkey wants to install the friendly Arab rebels fighting in its current operation along the Manbij-Jarablus corridor as a buffer against Kurdish groups. An estimated 1,000 Syrian Arab rebels are working with Turkey, which has at least 380 soldiers and 40 tanks inside Syria. Turkey handed over control of Jarablus to local Arabs after successfully ousting Islamic State last week.
On Saturday, some of the Syrian Arab units fighting with Turkish armor units said they were trying to seize a number of villages south of Jarablus when clashes with rival YPG units broke out. Clashes reportedly were fiercest around the village of Amarneh, around 5 miles south of Jarablus.
Two Turkish tanks came under attack by YPG fighters armed with antitank rockets around 4 miles south of Jarablus, according to the Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu. One soldier was killed—the first Turkish soldier to die in the conflict—and three others wounded, it said. It didn’t give any more details about the location of the attack.
Syrian groups that monitor fighting and civilian death tolls reported casualties on at least two battlefronts south of Jarablus as a result of the weekend clashes.
Aleppo24 said that at least 28 civilians died in Turkish airstrikes, including people in Amarneh and a family from the neighboring village of Saressat. It also said that at least 19 fighters had been killed.
A second monitoring group, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said at least 70 civilians were killed and wounded in Turkish airstrikes and shelling in the village of Jab al-Kousa, more than 8 miles south of Jarablus.
Turkish officials didn’t respond to questions about locations of their airstrikes inside Syria or how many bombing raids were carried out. The state news agency reported that the Turkish Military Joint Special Task Forces and coalition airplanes targeted on Saturday an ammunition depot, barracks and a command center used by “terror groups” south of Jarablus.
A statement from Turkey’s military, reported by Anadolu, said that the offensive was being carried out in accordance with international law and the United Nations’ mandate of self-defense. Turkey has suffered several terror attacks at home this year believed to have been carried out by Islamic State and the PKK.
—Thomas Grove, Yeliz Candemir, Raja Abdulrahim and Noam Raydan contributed to this article.
Write to Margaret Coker at margaret.cok