Civilians killed, injured as Turkish shelling restarts in northeast Syria

Shahla Omar

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Turkish shelling has resumed in northern Syria, as Ankara’s widely condemned Operation Peace Spring enters its second day. Eight civilians have been killed and over a dozen injured since the operation against Kurdish-led forces began, with thousands of civilians already displaced by the operation.

Shelling recommenced in the Syria-Turkey border town of Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain) in the early hours of the morning, according to the Peoples’ Protection Units (YPG)-affiliated Hawar News.

Syrian state media agency SANA reported Thursday morning bombings by Turkish warplanes in the village of Tal Arqam east of Ras al-Ain and the launch of a ground offensive towards the villages of Yabisah, al-Munbateh and Beir Ashiq in Tal Abyad, Raqqa province. 

Jet bombardments and artillery strikes began on targets along the length of the Syria border at 4:00 pm local time on Tuesday, forcing civilians to flee in their thousands. According to the Turkish defense ministry, 181 locations were shelled.

A  ground offensive commenced at 10:30 pm, with Turkish ground forces moving in at several points along the border, the defense ministry said.

The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported eight civilians have been killed and 13 others injured in airstrikes. 

Among those killed, five people, including a family of three, died in shelling in and around Tel Abyad,  two Syriac Christians were killed in Qamishli, and one other civilian in Ras al-Ain.

At least nineteen Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militants were killed in the early hours of the Turkish offensive, according to SOHR. 

In a speech to provincial heads of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Ankara on Thursday afternoon, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said 109 "terrorists" - a term he uses to describe members of both the YPG and ISIS - had so far been killed.

 

Erdogan announced the start of his long-threatened military offensive against Kurdish forces in northeast Syria, dubbed Operation Peace Spring, on Wednesday afternoon. 

The attack was greenlighted by a United States announcement of withdrawal from northeast Syria after a phone call between Erdogan and US President Donald Trump on Sunday. 

A White House statement on the decision to withdraw its troops said its presence in the area for counter-ISIS operations in northeast Syria was no longer necessary.

However, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo appeared to contradict the dismissal of an ISIS threat in a PBS Newshour interview broadcast yesterday, saying Sunday night’s phone call highlighted that US troops in northeast Syria were in fact “at risk.” 

“On the phone call on Sunday night, it became very clear that there were American soldiers that were going to be at risk, the president made a decision to put them in a place where they were out of the harms way … I am confident that we are going to protect the American people from that terrorist threat.”

The SDF have repeatedly warned that a Turkish offensive would force them to move focus away from operations against a resurgent Islamic State (ISIS), and the detention of ISIS suspects at facilities already overstretched before the Turkish operation began. 

On Thursday, ISIS propaganda channels reported its militants killed an SDF investigator at his home in the town of Mansoura, Raqqa. 

As concerns grow that suspects will be able to escape from camp authority control, Trump tweeted Wednesday night that two British-national ISIS militants tied to beheadings in Syria were moved to a “secure location” under US control. 

Christian community expresses fear

Northeast Syria’s sizeable Syriac Christian community has expressed grave concern for its safety and even its continued existence in the area, with casualties incurred and damage to their villages.

Five Christian organisations in northeastern Syria released a joint statement calling the US withdrawal from northeast Syria a “betrayal” and urging the implementation of safety measures for the community, including an international no-fly zone.

Interviewed yesterday by SDF-affiliated North Press Agency, prominent Christian community leader Elizabeth Kawriye said the Turkish operation  "acts as a great danger to the existence of Christians in Syria.”  

“The decision to ban the DAA (Democratic Autonomous Administration) and its forces (SDF)  that fought alongside the international coalition to push back ISIS is a betrayal of the DAA and its people, which compromises not only Kurds but Christian and Arab tribes that fought together with the USA.”

International condemnation 

With the United Nations Security Council due to hold an emergency session at 14.00 (GMT) on Thursday in response to the Turkish attack, condemnation of both the offensive and the US withdrawal that effectively greenlighted Turkey’s action has been widespread.

Within Turkey, the two co-chairs of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) are to be investigated by Turkey's Public Prosecution office after making condemnatory comments on the operation, according to Turkish state media.

Sezai Temelli and Pervin Buldan had accused Turkey of “massacring Kurds” and “empowering the Islamic State (ISIS) in Syria” during a Wednesday press conference jointly held by Turkey’s pro-Kurdish political parties.

Elsewhere, France summoned the Turkish ambassador to Paris early on Thursday afternoon in response to the offensive. It is the second country to have summoned a Turkish ambassador after the Netherlands did so on Wednesday. 

"I am (summoned), I'm going later on," Ambassador to France Ismail Hakki Musa told AFP.

Former French president Francois Hollande, who during his tenure sent troops to the region to fight ISIS, told Le Parisien France "owes a debt to the Kurds." 

Hollande called for a re-establishment of a safe zone and a return of American soldiers in the interview published Wednesday night. 
 
In an interview with Christiane Amanpour on CNN, retired General John Allen berated President Trump’s lack of coordination with the US government and security apparatus in the lead up to the Turkish operation, calling it “chaos.”

"We don't do strategy, and we shouldn't be doing foreign policy, by tweet. This is what you get when you have single phone calls between world leaders, and when you put the phone down, no coordination with the US government,” Allen, a former NATO commander Afghanistan said Wednesday night.

"Our national security mechanism in this country was largely surprised by that phone call and surprised by that tweet that called for withdrawal of American forces.” 

The SDF’s liaison with the International Coalition Against the Islamic State wrote an op-ed Thursday to the Washington Post calling the operation a ”vast humanitarian disaster” and condemning “international silence.” 

"The United States has cast aside the Kurds and free people of Syria, leaving them to their fates at the hands of their mortal enemies. The international community is silent. This is yet another bitter defeat for the people of northeastern Syria."

Turkish defiance

In a show of support for the operation, Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs organised Thursday a 90,000 mosque-wide recitation of morning prayers for the Turkish army success, according to state media. 

Erdogan reiterated threats to release the millions of refugees currently in Turkey into Europe if the continent's leaders continued to condemn the operation in his Ankara speech to AKP lawmakers.

The European Union had called on Turkey to "cease the unilateral military action" in a statement released yesterday.
 
“We will open the gates and send 3.6 million refugees your way,” Turkey's president said.

Updated at 3:10 pm