Despite US warning, Turkey shells Syria’s Kurdish-held Afrin region

Published January 20, 2018

Update 15:41: BREAKING: Russia moves troops out of Afrin, as Turkey steps up it’s bombing on US-allied militia

Update 15.29: Turkey has now started air raids on Afrin; supporting the Turkish military, the Free Syrian Army (FSA) has started ground skirmishes against YPG, the US-backed militia; YPG accuses Turkey of using the shelling as an excuse to launch a ground assault.

Reuters reports that Turkish artillery fired into Syria’s Afrin region on Friday in what Ankara said was the start of a military campaign against the Kurdish-controlled area.

The cross-border bombardment took place after days of threats from Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan to crush the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in Afrin in response to growing Kurdish strength across a wide stretch of north Syria.

Direct military action against territory held by Kurdish militia would open a new front in Syria’s civil war and would see Ankara confronting Kurds allied to the United States at a time when Turkey’s relations with Washington are reaching breaking point.

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