Turkey said it targeted the faction because it was a ‘threat’
Beirut: Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said late Saturday that his country’s military fired at Kurdish fighters in northern Syria on Saturday in response to a provocation along the border. He said Turkish forces retaliated against a Kurdish faction “that presented a threat in Azaz and its environs”, in line with the country’s rules of engagement.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Pic/AFP
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He accused the Kurdish People’s Protections Units, or YPG, of carrying out “harassing actions” along the border. Turkish troops have bombarded areas under the control of Syria’s main Kurdish military, the People’s Protection Units or YPG, multiple times in the past.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights activist group said two fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters have been killed and seven others wounded in the shelling. There was no immediate confirmation by the group, which is dominated by Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units known as the YPG.
The group has seized a number of villages in the northern province of Aleppo near the Turkish border in recent days, and appears poised to move to the border town of Azaz, an opposition stronghold.
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