On the third day of their military operation in northern Syria, Turkish forces on Friday (October 11th) intensified their deadly bombings against Kurdish targets.

This offensive, which has pushed 100,000 people to "leave their homes" according to the UN, should not end immediately. "No matter what some say, we will not stop this" operation targeting the People's Protection Units (YPG), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday during a speech in Istanbul.

After withdrawing their soldiers from sectors in Syria near the Turkish border last week, leaving the field open for this offensive, the United States, who then said it sought to arrange a ceasefire, made contradictory statements. .

On Friday, Pentagon chief Mark Esper warned Turkey against "serious consequences" if it did not interrupt its assault. But he also said that the Turks showed no sign of stopping their offensive while the US Army Chief of Staff, Mark Milley, felt that the Turkish offensive was " relatively limited ".

Neighboring Syria at war, Turkey launched its operation on Wednesday, bringing into action air and ground forces against a Syrian Kurdish militia that it considers to be "a terrorist group" and that it says it wants to move away from its border.

Members of ISIS fleeing ?

The offensive provoked an international outcry, with several countries concerned about the plight of civilians but also members of the Islamic State organization detained by Kurdish forces who control large areas of northern Syria and who could flee.

Seeming to confirm these fears, the Kurdish authorities claimed that five ISIS jihadists had escaped from a prison near the predominantly Kurdish town of Qamichli after Turkish raids.

Turkish Offensive in Syria: Unexpected Opportunity for Islamic State Group?

In addition, a riot broke out in the Kurdish-controlled Al-Hol camp where thousands of families of suspected jihadists live. The Islamic State organization has also claimed responsibility for an attack in Qamichli that killed six people.

According to a latest assessment of the Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (OSDH), 41 Kurdish fighters and 17 civilians have died since Wednesday. Ankara announced the death of four soldiers in Syria and 17 civilians in the fall of Kurdish rockets at border towns in Turkey.

In the Syrian north, Turkish forces and their Syrian counterparts intensified the bombing, according to the OSDH.

Turkey's goal : to move YPG away from the border

"What does Erdogan want from us? (...) It's just because we are Kurds?" Asked a woman who took refuge with her family in a school in the city of Hassake, further south.

NGOs have warned of a new humanitarian disaster in Syria where the war, which has become more complex with the intervention of multiple regional and international actors, has claimed more than 370,000 lives since 2011 and pushed millions of people into conflict. leak.

According to the Turkish media, Ankara wants to take control of the Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad gang in order to move the main Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPGs, backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and main actor in the defeat of the Islamic State organization.

With its offensive, Turkey hopes to create a "safe zone" where some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees living on its soil can be settled.

In response to European criticism of the offensive, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to send millions of Syrian refugees to his country.

With AFP