Foreign
Implementing a ceasefire will take time, a White House spokeswoman on Friday said as machine-gun fire, shelling and smoke were observed at the Syria-Turkey border one day after top U.S. officials announced a truce.
The White House spokeswoman, Stephanie Grisham, said that the U.S. delegation was “successful in a ceasefire, but that takes time”, adding that she would not discuss operations on the ground.
Sporadic fighting and shelling were taking place in north-eastern Syria on Friday, a war monitor and Kurdish sources said, a day after Turkey and the U.S. agreed to a five-day ceasefire in the region.
Shelling and gunfire were being heard across the border town of Ras al-Ain, although other areas which had seen fighting were quiet, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
It added that clashes in the area are taking place between Turkish-backed militias and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in spite of the ceasefire.
At least two SDF fighters were killed in the violence that also resulted in unspecified casualties among the Turkish-allied rebels, the Britain-based watchdog reported.
Kurdish sources told dpa that Turkish shelling targeted Ras al-Ain and that a hospital, where many of the wounded were being treated, had been hit.
Amid the clashes, Turkish-backed rebels prevented a convoy for the Kurdish Red Crescent to enter the town and evacuate the wounded, the Observatory said.
This was confirmed by the Rojava Information Centre, run by a group of activists in the Kurdish-dominated areas, adding that the Turkey-affiliated groups shelled areas around the hospital to prevent the convoy from reaching it.
SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali accused Turkey of violating the ceasefire deal.
“In spite of the agreement to halt the fighting, air and artillery attacks continue to target the positions of fighters, civilian settlements and the hospital in Serêkaniyê/Ras al-Ayn,” Bali said in a tweet.
However, Turkish President Recep Erdogan dismissed reports on clashes as “speculation and misinformation.”
“There is no such clash in question,” he said in Istanbul in his first public remarks after Thursday’s deal with the U.S.
Erdogan claimed the Syrian Kurdish militia already started to leave the area. Turkish security forces there “will not leave the area” as part of the deal, he added.
On Thursday, U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said Turkey would pause its offensive for 120 hours to allow Syrian Kurdish fighters to withdraw from a “safe zone.”
The SDF said they accepted the ceasefire and hoped that Turkey would abide by it.
Turkey had said its offensive, which started Oct. 9 in north-eastern, was aimed at Islamic State militants and the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
Turkey considers the YPG to be linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) waging an insurgency within the country.
The U.S. had relied on the YPG to help defeat Islamic State in Syria and is now being accused of abandoning the Syrian Kurds. (dpa/NAN)
– Oct 18, 2019 @ 15:55 GMT |
Tags: Ceasefire will ‘take time’ at Syria-Turkey border – White House
