Turkey on Sunday shelled US-backed Kurdish rebels in northern Syria as they attempted to take over an abandoned air base near its borders, ignoring US requests to stop targeting the fighters.
The shelling — just days after a tentative ceasefire was announced in Munich — complicates the US-led coalition’s efforts to support Kurdish militias, especially the Popular Defence Forces (YPG), without provoking Turkey, a Nato-ally that considers the YPG an extension of terrorist groups that have waged a 30-year secession battle with the Turkish state. It also means two US allies are actively fighting one another on the ground in Syria.
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Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu announced that Turkish forces had shelled the Kurdish targets in an address to the nation as Saudi Arabian fighter jets began to arrive at the Incirlik air base in a bid to counterbalance Iranian and Russian support for President Bashar al-Assad.
“We have seen reports of artillery fire from the Turkish side of the border and urged Turkey to cease such fires,” said John Kirby, a State Department spokesman. He added that Washington had also “urged Syrian Kurdish and other forces affiliated with the YPG not to take advantage of a confused situation by seizing new territory”.
Ankara has warned the American government for more than a year that it was frustrated with US support for the Kurdish militias, which now control large swaths of territory just south of the Turkish border.
“They had been warned, again and again and now, while there is a ceasefire, the YPG is trying to steal more territory — nobody should be surprised that Turkey acted,” said a Turkish military analyst who asked not to be named because he was describing his conversations with military officials. “For us, this last advance activated our rules of engagement.”
The Turkish artillery attacks were focused on Kurdish-led forces north of Aleppo, where the YPG and an aligned opposition group, Jaish al-Thuwar, had seized at least three villages and the Minagh air base. Video from activists showed columns of dark smoke rising from near the base after the shelling. The US State Department called for de-escalation, saying the US had asked the Syrian Kurds to step back.
The shelling targeted areas near the town of Azaz, about 20km south of the Turkish border. Azaz is critical for sending humanitarian aid to tens of thousands of Syrians fleeing the fighting from around Aleppo, where Russian air strikes have enabled the Assad regime to make unprecedented advances against the Syrian opposition in recent months.
The YPG is trying to take Azaz in a bid to link the pockets of territory it controls in northern Syria. Turkey fears this could be the beginnings of an autonomous Kurdish region in an area bordering its own Kurdish population.
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In a statement Jaish al-Thuwwar condemned the Turkish strikes, saying “no one can hide that Turkey supports terrorists groups and nourishes them to serve its own interests”.
Turkey’s shelling took place amid an uptick in Russian air strikes on non-Kurdish rebel forces in the Azaz region, with Moscow in effect supporting the YPG, which insists it does not co-ordinate with Russia.
At the same time that warring Syrian sides rush for Azaz, Mr Assad’s forces are advancing toward the Isis-controlled Tabqa air base in Raqqa province. Advances in that region could bring Mr Assad’s Russian-backed forces into an area whose skies have been dominated by the US-led coalition strikes against Isis. This could create yet another flashpoint between foreign powers in the increasingly convoluted civil war.
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