Casualties mount as Turkey intensifies attack on Kurdish militia in northeast Syria, EU warns of ‘humanitarian catastrophe’
ISTANBUL/BEIRUT - Turkey intensified its air and artillery strikes in northeast Syria on Friday in an offensive against Kurdish militia that has raised the prospect of a humanitarian disaster and questions about U.S. President Donald Trump’s policy in the region.
Turkey opened its offensive after Trump spoke by phone on Sunday with Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan and withdrew U.S. troops who had been fighting alongside Kurdish forces. The Pentagon stressed the need for Turkey to avoid doing anything to endanger U.S. forces inside Syria, who numbered about 1,000 before the incursion.
U.S Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Trump had made the right decision to move U.S. soldiers out of harm’s way. “Turkey is fighting with terrorist organizations that create a threat to its national security,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement in response to the sanctions threat. “No one should doubt that we will retaliate ... to any step that will be taken against this.”
Members of Syrian National Army, known as Free Syrian Army, drive in an armored vehicle in the Turkish border town of Ceylanpinar in Sanliurfa province, Turkey, October 11, 2019. REUTERS/Murad SezerOn Friday, Turkish warplanes and artillery struck around Syria’s Ras al Ain, one of two border towns that have been the focus of the offensive, now in its third day.Hundreds of kilometers further east along the frontier, a car bomb blew up outside a restaurant in Qamishli.
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