Syria: Turkish army increases pressure on Kurdish forces and regime troops

A view of the city of Kobané in northern Syria near the Turkish border.

AP - Emrah Gurel

Text by: RFI Follow

1 min

Turkish airstrikes on positions held by regime troops and Kurdish forces left three people dead and injured on Sunday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

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With our regional correspondent,

Tension has risen in the past 24 hours on the northern Syrian fronts where the Turkish army and its Syrian auxiliaries face each other on the one hand, the Kurdish militias and the government army on the other.

Violent artillery duels took place in the Kobané sector, east of Aleppo, before the intervention of the Turkish air force which caused deaths and injuries in the ranks of Kurdish fighters and the Syrian army. 

The Turkish army has also fired dozens of shells and rockets against positions of the Syrian Democratic Forces, dominated by the Kurds and supported by the United States, in the region of Qamichli, in the extreme north-east of Syria.   

This escalation on the ground comes at a time when Ankara and Damascus have had high-level contact for the first time since the start of the Syrian war eleven years ago.

Various sources have revealed that the heads of the security services of the two countries have met several times in recent weeks to discuss the conflicting files.

Reuters news agency confirmed that a meeting took place in Damascus last week between Turkish intelligence chief Hakan Fidan and his Syrian counterpart Ali Mamlouk, who is under US and EU sanctions.

The Kurds, who control a quarter of Syrian territory, are unhappy with these contacts and fear to bear the brunt of a rapprochement between Ankara and Damascus.

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• Syria

• Turkey