The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) yesterday fought fierce battles and clashes against Turkish forces and pro-Syrian factions in northeastern Syria, in an attempt to repel an aggression launched by Ankara two days ago and forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee. As US President Donald Trump commissioned US diplomats to broker a "ceasefire" between Ankara and the Kurds, Russia joined the list of Western countries that warned that Turkish aggression could help revive ISIS, which is still active through sleeper cells.

In detail, a source in the Syrian Democratic Forces from inside the border town of Ras al-Ain told «AFP» by telephone «Turkish forces are trying to attack from several axes to break our defense lines, but our forces are addressing them».

The AFP correspondent saw groups of pro-Ankara Syrian factions entering yesterday morning to the outskirts of Ras al-Ain from the Turkish side. He said clouds of smoke had risen from the town, while sounds of bursts and artillery shelling could be heard in conjunction with the flight.

According to the director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Rami Abdulrahman, fierce clashes between the two parties «concentrated on several fronts in the border stretching from Ras al-Ain (Hasaka) to Tal Abyad (Raqqa)», coinciding with heavy artillery shelling and sporadic Turkish raids.

The observatory counted the killing of seven civilians by Turkish fire, yesterday, bringing the death toll of civilians since the beginning of the aggression to 17 civilians, while 41 Syrian Democratic Forces were killed in a new toll.

Ankara announced yesterday the death of the first Turkish soldier and the injury of three others during the clashes, the day after the killing of seven civilians, including a Syrian infant, and wounding about 70 wounded in shells landed in border towns in the provinces of ليanlıurfa and Mardin, authorities accused Kurdish fighters of launching.

The Turkish Defense Ministry said the military operation was "taking place as planned."

After the Turkish army and the factions took control of 11 border villages, the SDF was able to regain control of two villages at night, according to the observatory.

According to Abdul Rahman, these forces are using tunnels and fortifications built near the border to launch counter-attacks and hinder the advancement of their opponents.

The area extending from Ras al-Ain to Tall Abyad along more than 100 kilometers is predominantly Arab, unlike other Kurdish-dominated border areas.

As a result of the escalation, entire border towns are virtually empty. Yesterday, an AFP correspondent saw dozens of displaced people arriving in the town of Tal Tamr, which is gradually overcrowded.

"We are here without food or drink, we have no mattresses to sleep on," Riad Ahmed, 56, told AFP.

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has expressed concern about the fate of civilians, warning that the escalation "will exacerbate the shocks suffered by the Syrians during years of war and live in precarious conditions."

A hospital in Tel Abyad, which was supported by the organization, closed because most medical staff left with their families.

The self-administration announced that it would evacuate Al-Mabrouka IDP camp, located 12 kilometers from the border, and is looking for an alternative location to Ein Isa camp, to protect 20,000 IDPs in both locations from Turkish shelling.

Turkey called its aggression "the spring of peace."

The aggression drew widespread international condemnation and fears of the revival of ISIS, with Kurdish fighters turning to fighting Turkish forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin warned yesterday that thousands of fighters of the extremist group held by the Kurds may regain their freedom, adding: "It is a real threat .. I am not sure that the Turkish army can control the situation or control quickly."

The US president has been widely criticized for abandoning the Kurds. After a series of contradictory positions on the administration, Trump asked the State Department to find out whether a ceasefire could be reached.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, in Istanbul yesterday, expressed his "serious concerns about this ongoing process and the risk of causing further destabilization in the region."

In New York, the UN Security Council held a closed-door meeting yesterday to discuss the Turkish invasion of Syria, but members failed to agree on any steps forward.

A group of European ambassadors has called on Turkey to "stop unilateral military action," adding that "renewed armed fighting in the north-east of the country will further undermine stability in the entire region."

"The so-called safe zone in northeast Syria, as envisioned by Turkey, is unlikely to satisfy international standards for the return of refugees," diplomats from the United Kingdom, Belgium, France, Germany and Poland said.

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Kelly Kraft, declined to criticize the Turkish invasion, although she made it clear that the United States did not support it.

"Failure to abide by the laws, to protect vulnerable populations and not to ensure that ISIS does not exploit these operations to reorganize, will have repercussions," she said.

As he headed to the meeting, German Deputy Ambassador to the United Nations Jürgen Schultz condemned the Turkish invasion of northeastern Syria "in the strongest possible terms."

Italian Prime Minister: The European Union can not accept the Turkish "extortion"

Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said yesterday that the European Union should not comply with Turkey's threats to send millions of Syrian refugees to the EU, and called on Ankara to immediately halt its military operations in northern Syria.

"The EU cannot accept this blackmail," Conte told reporters. "Turkish efforts to receive Syrian refugees cannot become a tool of blackmail for a military gesture that we cannot accept. It must stop immediately."

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech yesterday that the European Union should “own itself” and threatened to “open the doors and send 3.6 million refugees” to Europe if it calls the military operation an occupation. Reuters

Killed by a car bomb in Qamishli

A car bomb exploded yesterday in a crowded street in the mainly Kurdish city of Qamishli in northeastern Syria, causing an unknown number of deaths, a spokesman for the Kurdish security forces said.

Ali al-Hassan, a spokesman for the Kurdish internal security forces, said a terrorist attack on a street packed with people in the city, and preliminary investigations showed that it was a car bomb, causing civilian casualties. Al-Qamishli - AFP