Deaths rise, 100,000 displaced as Turkish forces push deeper into Syria
ERDOGAN FLAYED FOR ‘BLACKMAIL’
Turkish forces pushed deeper into northeastern Syria on Friday, the third day of Ankara’s offensive against US-allied Syrian Kurdish fighters, as casualties mounted, international criticism of the campaign intensified and thousands of civilians fled the violence.
The UN said the attack had forced around 100,000 people to flee their homes and that there were many other humanitarian consequences to the assault. It said a water station servicing 400,000 people in the city of Hasakeh and surrounding areas was out of service.
The Pentagon said the incursion was damaging US-Turkey relations, adding that the US was not abandoning its Kurdish partners. “We have not abandoned the Kurds, let me be clear about that,” US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said at the Pentagon.
“Nobody green-lighted this operation by Turkey, just the opposite. We pushed back very hard at all levels for the Turks not to commence this operation,” Esper said. The Kurdish YPG is the main fighting element of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) which have acted as the principal allies of the US in a campaign that recaptured territory held by Daesh.
The SDF now holds most of the territory that once made up Daesh’s “caliphate” in Syria, and has been keeping thousands of Daesh fighters in jail and tens of thousands of their family members in camps.
Eight people were killed and 35 wounded when the YPG militia launched a mortar and rocket attack on Turkey’s Syrian border town of Nusaybin, the governor’s office in the southeastern province of Mardin said.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to send millions of Syrian refugees to Europe if the EU calls Turkey’s military offensive “an invasion.”
The statement is considered by some a move to “weaponize” the refugees who have been in Turkey since the beginning of Syrian civil war, and to use them as a leverage. “Turkey must understand that our main concern is that their actions may lead to another humanitarian catastrophe, which would be unacceptable. Nor will we ever accept that refugees are weaponized and used to blackmail us. That is why I consider threats made by Erdogan totally out of place,” Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, said.