Kurdish forces in Syria have carried out a total of 14 attacks in the past 36 hours despite a ceasefire agreed on Thursday, the Turkish defence ministry has claimed.
‘The Turkish armed forces fully abides by the agreement’ reached with the United States, the defence ministry said in a statement.
‘Despite this, terrorists … carried out a total of 14 attacks in the last 36 hours.’
The ministry said 12 of the attacks came from Ras al-Ain in northeastern Syria, one from Tal Abyad and another from Tal Tamr region, adding that various light and heavy weaponry including rockets were used.
Fire and smoke rising from the Syrian town of Ras al-Ain in Turkey’s military operation against Kurdish forces on Friday
Turkey had agreed to suspend its Syria offensive for five days but President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned on Friday he would resume a full-scale operation against Kurdish forces if they do not withdraw from a border ‘safe zone.’
‘If the promises are kept until Tuesday evening, the safe zone issue will be resolved. If it fails, the operation… will start the minute 120 hours are over,’ Erdogan said.
But he added the agreement was holding and that had been no issues so far.
The defence ministry said ‘for the agreement to hold soundly and to keep the calm with exception of self-defence’, Turkey was coordinating with the United States.
On Saturday, calm appeared to be prevailing in Ras al-Ain with no signs of fighting, reports on the Turkish side of the border claimed.
Kurdish forces have also claimed Turkey is failing to abide by the terms of the agreement by refusing to lift a siege it imposed on a key border town in northeastern Syria 30 hours after the truce went into effect.
The ceasefire got off to a rocky start on Friday, with sporadic fighting and shelling seen around Ras al-Ayn.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday that Turkey-backed Syrian fighters have prevented a medical convoy from reaching Ras al-Ayn since Friday.
The five-day ceasefire was agreed on Thursday after Donald Trump dispatched Vice President Mike Pence to Ankara to end to the bloodshed – and a deal was announced that would see Turkey stop its attack while Kurdish forces withdraw from the border.
A Turkish-backed Syrian fighter sits on the side of the street in the town of Ayn al-Arus, south of the border town of Tal Abyad
‘The Turkish armed forces fully abides by the agreement’ reached on Thursday with the United States, the defence ministry said in a statement
While Kurdish leadership agreed to the deal it was far from clear whether individual armed militias – who fought and died to claim the territory from ISIS – would willingly hand it over to Erdogan.
On Friday, smoke billowed over Ras al-Ayn as gunfire and shelling could be heard inside the city, though it was unclear who was firing at whom.
The ceasefire had earlier been praised by Trump, who said it would save ‘millions of lives,’ while Turkey cast it as a complete victory.
If implemented, the deal would achieve all the main objectives Turkey announced when it launched its assault on October 9: control of a strip of Syria more than 20 miles deep, with the SDF forces agreed to pull out.
Republican and Democratic senators have accused Trump of having betrayed the Kurdish allies who were vital in fighting Islamic State militants, of brushing aside the humanitarian costs of Turkey’s invasion and of being outwitted by Ankara.
It was unclear what if any damage came from the shelling heard on Friday.
The five-day ceasefire was agreed on Thursday after Donald Trump dispatched Vice President Mike Pence to Ankara to end to the bloodshed
It was also unclear whether the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) would fully comply with the agreement, which would leave Turkish forces in charge of a swathe of territory that the Kurds once held with U.S. military support.
Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, told Kurdish TV late on Thursday: ‘We will do whatever we can for the success of the ceasefire agreement.’
But one Kurdish official, Razan Hiddo, declared that the Kurdish people would refuse to live under Turkish occupation.
Trump framed the US-brokered ceasefire deal with Turkey as ‘a great day for civilisation’ but its effect was largely to mitigate a foreign policy crisis widely seen to be of his own making.
Speaking at a rally in Dallas on Thursday, the US president said he allowed Turkish and Kurdish forces to clash in deadly battles because the two sides were like children who needed to fight each other.
‘It was unconventional what I did. I said they’re going to have to fight a little while,’ Trump said. ‘Like two kids in a lot, you have got to let them fight and then you pull them apart.
‘They fought for a few days and it was pretty vicious.’
More than 500 people have been killed including dozens of civilians, mostly on the Kurdish side, and 300,000 civilians have been displaced within Syria, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor.