Baby among dead as Turkey continues strikes against Kurds
Six people, including a nine-month-old baby, have been killed as Kurdish forces fired upon Turkish border towns, as President Erdogan delivered a fiery defence at critics.
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Six people including a nine-month-old baby have been killed during mortar and rocket fire from Syria into Turkish border towns, according to Turkish provincial authorities.
Three people were killed and 45 people wounded as shells hit the border towns of Akcakale and Ceylanpinar, Sanliurfa governor’s office said in a statement.
It comes as Turkey’s Defence Ministry says 174 “terrorists” have been “neutralised” in its cross-border military offensive, referring to Syrian Kurdish fighters.
The ministry tweeted that the number includes 19 alleged fighters killed in an air strike on a shelter used by the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, in Ras al-Ayn.
The numbers could not be independently verified.
The Turkish army detected and destroyed PKK and YPG militants targeting Turkish civilians, the defence ministry said following the shelling attack. Separately, three people were killed and more than 20 people wounded as shells hit the border town of Nusaybin, Mardin governor’s office said.
Turkey pressed its military offensive against US-allied Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria, shelling towns and bombing targets from the air in an operation that could transform an eight-year-old war.
It comes as more than 60,000 people have been displaced in camps in northeastern Syria following the start of Turkey’s military offensive, according to the International Rescue Committee (IRC)
“In the last 24 hours it’s reported that more than 64,000 people fled their homes in northeast Syria. If the offensive continues it’s possible a total of 300,000 people could be displaced to already overstretched camps and towns still recovering from the fight against ISIS,” said Misty Buswell, IRC’s communications director for the Middle East.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan delivered a fiery defence of the military incursion on Thursday, dismissing a chorus of global criticism and threatening to send more than three million Syrian refugees into Europe. Erdogan said the operation would allow Syrian refugees to return to their own homes and promised that Islamic State prisoners being held in northeast Syria would not escape.
“They are not honest, they just make up words,” Mr Erdogan said in a blistering speech in which he hit back at critics of the operation.
“We, however, create action and that is our difference.”
Singling out the EU and Arab powers Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which both condemned Turkey’s operation, Mr Erdogan said they should “step aside” and let Turkey get on with the battle.
“Let me start with Saudi Arabia,” Mr Erdogan told members of his AK Party in the Turkish capital Ankara.
“Look in the mirror first. Who brought Yemen to this state?” he asked, referring to Riyadh’s military intervention in Yemen’s ruinous civil war. “Did tens of thousands of people not die in Yemen?
“Egypt, you can’t talk at all. You are a country with a democracy killer,” Mr Erdogan said.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi “held a meeting with some others and condemned the operation — so what if you do?” he added.
Addressing the European Union, which Turkey still formally aspires to join despite mounting EU criticism of Ankara’s human rights record, Mr Erdogan said the 28-member bloc had never been sincere with his country.
“Hey, European Union, pull yourself together. If you try to label this operation as an occupation … we will open the gates and send 3.6 million refugees your way,” he said.
Turkey hosts 3.6 million Syrians. Under a deal agreed in 2016, the EU has provided billions of euros in aid in return for Ankara stemming the influx of migrants into Europe, but Turkey says the money was slow to materialise and paltry next to the $US40 billion ($A59 billion) it says it has spent. “We invite those who close their eyes to all other developments and criticise Turkey to be mindful instead,” Mr Erdogan said.
TRUMP SAYS IS PRISONERS ‘MOVED’ BEFORE STRIKE
Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump pledged that some of the most dangerous Islamic State prisoners, guarded by Kurdish forces, were moved before a Turkish invasion of Syria.
The military action against Kurdish controlled areas of Syria has been condemned as giving a green light to the return of Islamic State in the region, as urgent talks were called to stop the crisis.
Britain and the European Union warned Turkey was destabilising the Middle East with its attack on Kurdish forces, who were key allies of the United States in the fight against terrorism.
Their concerns echoed the comments made by Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne who had warned Turkey was wrong to attack the “steadfast and reliable” partners of the coalition against Islamic State.
Kurdish forces control prisons where at least 12,000 Islamic State fighters are held.
Two “high-value” jihadists held by Syrian Kurds have been taken into US custody and moved out of the country, a US defence official said, as reports identified them as notorious British fighters dubbed “The Beatles”.
Turkey’s assault on the Syrian Kurdish forces has sparked fears the offensive could lead to captured fighters they held, escaping and reconstituting the group.
“I can confirm that we’ve taken custody of two high-value ISIS individuals from the SDF,” the defence official said on condition of anonymity, referring to the Islamic State group and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces that held the captured jihadists.
“They have been moved out of Syria and are in a secure location,” the official said, without identifying where.
Mr Trump said on Thursday that the worst offenders had been moved before the fighting began.
“We’re putting them in different locations where it’s secure,” he said.
Earlier, Mr Trump said his troops should never have been in Syria in the first place as he rejected criticism that he had abandoned Kurdish allies.
“Going into the Middle East is the worst decision ever made,” he said on Twitter.
At least seven civilians were killed during bombing attacks, while ground troops entered northern Syria early on Thursday Australian time.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he had been in contact with the Turkish and US governments overnight but admitted to being worried about the situation.
“We are very concerned about what this could potentially mean for the Kurdish people,” he said.
“We’re concerned about what this could mean for the potential for the resurgence of Daesh,” he added, using the Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.
Morrison declined to comment on Mr Trump’s decision but said Australia would “work together” with the US on the matter.
“Let’s be clear, it’s the Turkish government that is taking action here to create an unstable situation,” he said.
“They’re the ones who are actually deploying and seeking to walk across a border and to take actions in another nation state.”
There are fears the incursion could put Australian women and children stranded in the al-Hawl refugee camp at risk.
Australia’s Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said the government would not rush to extract the Australians.
It comes in the wake of the government stripping three dual nationals in Syria of their Australian citizenship.
They reportedly include Zehra Duman, who fled Australia as a teenager to marry an Islamic State militant.
“The advice in relation to some of these women is, far from being dragged there by their husband or boyfriend, they’ve gone willingly and/or they’re as hardcore as some of the male terrorists that they’ve seen in Syria and Iraq,” Mr Dutton told 2GB Radio.
In 2014, Australia joined the US-led coalition and offered military and financial support to fight Islamic State.
The United Nations Security Council was due to meet on Thursday to discuss the crisis that opens a new front in the bloody civil war that has engulfed Syria.
An emergency meeting of Arab League countries will take place on Saturday, as Turkey’s lone-wolf action lights a fire under already bubbling tensions in the region.
Britain’s Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab said he had serious concerns about Turkey’s military action.
“This risks destabilising the region, exacerbating humanitarian suffering and undermining the progress made against Daesh (Islamic State) which should be our collective focus,” he said.
“Turkey has shown considerable generosity in hosting so many Syrian refugees. But we will not support plans for returns until the conditions are in place for a voluntary and safe return home.”
The European’s Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini demanded a cease fire.
The EU says Turkey’s “unilateral action” threatens the progress of the US-led coalition to defeat the Islamic State extremist group.
Turkey accepted more than 3.6 million Syrian refugees but it wants to create a buffer zone where it can dump at least two million of them, just inside the border.
The Turks were initially targeting a strip of land between Til Abyad and Ras al-Ain, on the Turkish Syrian border.
But world leaders were angry at the plans, saying Syrians should be allowed to return to where they lived, if it was safe, before the start of the civil war eight years ago.
Ms Mogherini said “any attempt at demographic change would be unacceptable”.
Turkey has been battling Kurdish forces for more than three decades.
The Kurds want independence in some parts of Turkey, which has led to armed conflict that Turkey claimed was terrorism.
The YPG, part of the Syrian Democratic Forces, has been at the centre of Turkey’s anger.
Mustafa Bali, spokesman for the SDF, said that soldiers who had fought against Islamic State were being attacked.
“Kobani, the city that resisted ISIS for months and paved the way for its defeat is now being shelled by Turkish army,” he wrote on Twitter.
He also posted a video of crowds gathered in solidarity as Kurdish fighters have vowed to dig in against Turkish forces.
Bali claimed that the ground attack had been “repelled by SDF fighters in Til Abyad”.
“No advance as of now,” he tweeted.
And he claimed that bombs had fallen near the al-Chirkin prison where Islamic State prisoners were being held.
“Vicinity of al-Chirkin prison hosting Daesh prisoners was shelled by Turkish Army. The place where the most dangerous jihadists are held in.”
Mr Trump has defended his decision to move his troops out of Syria.
Mr Erdogan, who will visit the United States on November 13 at Mr Trump’s invitation, said the operation aims to eradicate “the threat of terror” against Turkey.
Mr Trump tweeted after the attacks began that US forces “should have never been there in the first place” in response to a comment about “endless wars in the Middle East.”
Mr Trump had earlier threatened to damage Turkey’s economy if it attacked Kurdish forces.
Originally published as Baby among dead as Turkey continues strikes against Kurds
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