US Condemns Clashes in Syria Between Turkish and US-Allied Kurdish Forces

VOA

Turkish military move inside Syria near the Turkish border town of Karkamis, Turkey, Aug. 26, 2016.

The United States said Monday clashes in Syria between Turkish forces and units affiliated with a U.S.-supported Kurdish-led alliance are not acceptable and is calling on all sides to stand down.

"We call on all armed actors to stand down... the U.S. is actively engaged to facilitate such de-confliction and unity of focus on ISIL, which remains a lethal and common threat," Brett McGurk, the U.S. envoy for the coalition to counter Islamic State (IS) said on Twitter. "We want to make clear that we find these clashes — in areas where ISIL is not located — unacceptable and a source of deep concern."

McGurk said the Pentagon has condemned the fighting south of the Syrian town of Jarablus and said U.S. forces were not involved in the clashes.

The Turkish military, along with its Syrian rebel allies, is in the sixth day of a campaign designed to drive U.S.-allied Kurdish forces and Islamic State (IS) militants out of Jarablus, which borders Turkey.

Syrian rebels supported by Turkey have taken control of at least four villages and one town from Kurdish-led forces in the area, amid reports that Turkish airstrikes claimed the lives of at least 35 civilians.

Monitors from the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights say in the attacks Sunday 20 people were killed in the village of Jub-al-Kousa, while 50 people were wounded in an area controlled by militia allied with the Kurdish-backed Syrian Democratic Forces. The Observatory says another air strike killed 15 civilians and wounded 20 others near the town of al-Armana.

The Turkish military said Sunday that its airstrikes in northern Syria killed 25 Kurdish militants and denied that civilians had also been killed. The Turkish military also said it is committed to protecting civilians under international law.

Turkey's state run Anadolu news agency said the dead Kurdish militants were "terrorist members" of the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD).

Turkish President President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at the rally Sunday that residents of Jarablus are returning to their homes after Turkish-backed forces recaptured it from Islamic State (IS).

He praised his armed forces for forcing IS militants from Jarablus. "They were attacking us from across the borders, now they are running away," Erdogan said, vowing to pursue the fleeing terrorists.

Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan greets people at the United Solidarity and Brotherhood rally in Gaziantep, Turkey, Aug. 28, 2016.

Turkey's military foray into Syria is a dramatic escalation of Ankara's involvement in the Syrian civil war.

The clashes bolster Western concerns that Turkey's military incursion into Syria is intended, in part, to target U.S.-supported Kurdish forces known as the Kurdish People's Protection Units, the YPG militia.

FILE - Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) fighters take up positions inside a damaged building in al-Vilat al-Homor neighborhood in Hasaka city.

The U.S. has described the YPG as one of its most effective allies in the fight against Islamic State, while Turkey is demanding a YPG retreat from all border territory seized from IS jihadists.