Turkish air strikes pounded a group of Kurdish fighters allied to a US-backed militia in northern Syria, highlighting the conflicting agendas of NATO members Ankara and Washington in an increasingly complex battlefield. The Turkish air force said it had carried out some 26 strikes on areas recently taken by the Kurdish YPG militia, the strongest force in the US-backed SDF. According to the Turkish statement, some 200 Kurdish fighters were killed in the attack, a claim rejected by the British-based Observatory monitoring group which reported a much lower toll of some 11 casualties, while officials of the Kurdish-led administration in northern Syria said dozens had been killed.
A US defense official said the specific groups struck by Turkish jets were not themselves US-backed, but were “close to and friendly with” the fighters Washington is working with. Nevertheless, US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said that Turkey remains a strong ally in the war against the Islamic State, while revealing that Washington was assisting Ankara in securing its border regions.
“With respect to Turkey, our partnership is very strong in the counter ISIL campaign. We’re working with the Turks now very successfully to help them secure their border area. we work with them in a number of ways on the counter ISIL campaign they’re strong partners in that. I will have an opportunity to discuss that with our continuing counter ISIL efforts and all the other things we do with Turkey as a strong and long-standing NATO ally so,” said Carter.
The United States has backed the Kurdish-led forces in their fight against the Islamic State, infuriating Ankara, which sees the YPG militia as an extension of Kurdish PKK militants who have waged a three-decade insurgency in southeastern Turkey. Turkey fears the YPG will try to connect three de-facto autonomous Kurdish cantons that have emerged during the five-and-a-half-year war in Syria, to create a Kurdish-run enclave in northern part of the war-torn-country, stoking the separatist ambitions of Kurds on Turkish soil.