Middle East16:01 31.03.2019(updated 16:21 31.03.2019) Get short URL
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The Turkish MoD claims that the attack was conducted by the US-backed Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara believes is linked to the PKK group, outlawed in Turkey.
According to Ankara, Turkey’s military retaliated after one of its soldiers had been killed and another one injured in a mortar attack in northwestern Syria.
The Turkish Defence Ministry stated that the attack was carried out by the Kurdish YPG militia, which has been fighting Daesh* in Syria mostly as part of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, in the Afrin region.
“After the incident, targets identified as belonging to terrorists were subject to fire,” the Turkish ministry said in a statement.
The day before the elections that take place on 31 March, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Ankara intended to solve the Syrian issue “on the field”, commenting on the possibility of a new operation against Kurdish militants in northern Syria.
Last year, Turkey launched a military operation against the Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin in the north of Aleppo province in Syria, fighting the US-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which constitute a large part of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Ankara views YPG as an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), considered a terrorist organisation by Ankara.
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Sourse: sputniknews.com
