Syrian and Turkish armies open fire on each other for the first time since Erdogan began his incursion against the Kurds
- Syrian and Turkish forces clashed for the first time during Ankara’s incursion
- Artillery and machinegun fire was exchanged near the border town of Ras al-Ain
- Turkey invaded northern Syria on October 9 to set up a ‘terrorist-free safe zone’
Syrian and Turkish armies opened fire on each other today for the first time since Ankara began its incursion against the Kurds.
Artillery and machine-gun fire was exchanged near the village of Assadiya, south of the border town of Ras al-Ain, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. Six Syrian soldiers were killed, according to the war monitor.
President Bashar al-Assad had bolstered Kurdish strongholds in northern Syria after Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan began his offensive on October 9 to establish a 75-mile wide, 20-mile deep buffer zone.
Turkish soldiers at a position east of the northeastern Syrian town of Ras al-AIn watch as a tank fires on positions held by fighters from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Army (SDF) on Monday
Russia’s Vladimir Putin had brokered a shaky ceasefire to allow Kurdish militants to withdraw from the area (pictured: Erdogan and Putin at their meeting in Sochi on October 12). That truce ends at 3pm today.
Erdogan’s communications director Fahrettin Altun said today: ‘Turkey and Russia had set a 150-hour deadline for YPG terrorists to leave the safe zone. The time is up.
‘We will establish (the safe zone), through joint patrols, whether or not the terrorists have actually withdrawn.’
Turkey’s foreign minister said yesterday that his country’s military would attack any Syrian Kurdish fighter after the deadline expires.
Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters that Russian and Syrian officials provided information that some Kurdish fighters had pulled out of the border area, but others still had not.
Turkey and Russia are to conduct joint patrols along a border strip to ensure that Kurdish forces have exited the territory.
However, this afternoon Kurdish media circulated footage which purported to show the aftermath of a Turkish mortar strike on Russian military police at the Al-Darbasiyah border crossing.
The Russian military claimed an explosive device detonated next to its armoured vehicles in Syria, but said there were no injuries or damage.
It said it took place as the military police were preparing to meet with Turkey’s military at the checkpoint on the Syria-Turkey border.
Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu announced on a visit to Aremenia: ‘The withdrawal of armed units from territory where a security corridor should be created has been completed ahead of time … Syrian border guards and our military police have been deployed there.’
Turkey is to keep sole control of a large section in the centre of the border, most of which it captured in its invasion launched.
The rest of the land is to be secured by Assad’s forces as per the agreement with Putin.
Turkish soldiers gather with their tanks at a position east of the northeastern Syrian town of Ras al-Ain, facing positions held by fighters from the Syrian Democratic Army (SDF) on Monday
Turkey-backed Syrian rebels gather at a position east of the northeastern Syrian town of Ras al-Ain on Monday
Turkey’s incursion sought to drive the U.S.-allied Kurdish forces out of a ‘safe zone’ along the border, after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled American troops from the area.
Syrian Kurdish forces have turned to Russia and the Syrian government in Damascus for protection.
U.S. troops were allied with the Kurdish-led fighters for five years in the long and bloody campaign that brought down the Islamic State group in Syria.
Ankara says the YPG is a terror group linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has waged a bloody campaign against the Turkish state since 1984.