Thick smoke pillars are visible along the front line near the Syrian city of Ras al-Ain. Turkey intensified its attack in northeastern Syria on Saturday, according to a Reuters reporter at the border.

Turkey has taken control of Ras al-Ain, according to the country's defense ministry. The statement is denied from Kurdish.

- Ras al-Ain is still resisting and fighting is ongoing, says a commander of the Kurdish-led SDF militia.

More than 100 soldiers have been killed since the attack began on Wednesday, according to the opposition Syrian Human Rights Observatory (SOHR), over 70 from the Kurdish forces and nearly 50 fighting on Turkey's side. 20 civilians have been killed in the fighting, according to SOHR. Most of the victims come from the area around Tal Abyad.

More than 190,000 people have left their homes as a result of the fighting, according to Syrian-Kurdish representatives. The UN announced on Friday that around 100,000 people have moved.

No "green light"

During the Turkish offensive, the US government has taken an ambivalent stance. The offensive began a few days after the country's leader had talked on the phone with each other. After the telephone call, the United States withdrew its forces from the area, which has been deemed to mean some kind of approval of the offensive.

That, in turn, has been denied from the US.

- No one gave green light to this Turkish effort, rather the opposite. We pushed hard at all levels to prevent the Turks from carrying out this effort, ”said Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, adding that the United States has daily asked Turkey to interrupt the offensive.

USA: Soldiers shelled

The tone between the United States and Turkey has further intensified since artillery fire, fired from Turkish positions, struck near U.S. soldiers, according to the US Pentagon Defense Headquarters.

"The explosion occurred within a few hundred meters of a location outside the security zone and is an area where the Turks know that US forces are present," said Brook DeWalt, captain of the US Navy.

No American soldier was injured, according to the Navy, which states that US forces have not withdrawn from the city of Kobane in the Aleppo province near the border with Turkey.

Turkey's defense ministry denies that the US base was the target of the attack.

"There was no fire at all on the US observation post," Defense Minister Hulusi Akar told Anatolia State News Agency.

The ministry says all measures have been taken to ensure that no American base was injured, while responding to fire coming from an area near an American base in Kobane. Turkey's fireside must have been interrupted when informed of the incident from the US.