Turkish Warplanes Carried Out Deadly Strikes On US-Backed Syrian Kurd Fighters

Ankara  - Turkish warplanes have carried out deadly strikes on US-backed militias in northern Syria, including Syrian Kurdish fighters, a monitor disclosed  Thursday, action that is likely to raise tensions between the NATO allies.

According to the Turkish military, its jets conducted 26 raids on Wednesday night that killed 160 to 200 militants from the People's Protection Units (YPG),

However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights put the death toll much lower.

The army, quoted by the official news agency Anadolu, said the raids hit 18 targets north of the battered city of Aleppo in areas recently recaptured by YPG forces from the Islamic State group.

The Observatory told AFP in Beirut that at least 11 fighters from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)-- a US-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters -- were killed and 24 wounded.

The UK-based monitor added there were at least 25 Turkish raids targeting many villages and towns northeast of Aleppo, including Maarrat Umm Hawsh.

These areas were recaptured by the SDF from IS jihadists in the last 48 hours, the Observatory said.

The agency said nine buildings used as YPG headquarters, meeting points, shelters and weapons depots were destroyed as well as four vehicles.

Ankara considers the YPG and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) as terror groups linked to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

The PKK, proscribed as a terrorist organisation by the United States and the European Union, has waged a bloody insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.

In a statement, the Kurdish Rojava region in Syria condemned Ankara's actions as "blatant aggression", calling for the United Nations, Moscow and Washington to "put direct pressure on Turkey to stop its attacks".

- 'We will drain the swamp' -

The strikes come on the eve of a visit to Turkey by US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter to discuss developments in the region and security challenges.

Tensions between the US and its NATO ally Turkey have heightened over Ankara's actions against the YPG, which Washington views as an effective force against IS in Syria.

Ankara has repeatedly said it will not allow a "terror corridor" on its southern border and wants to prevent the joining of the Kurdish "cantons" of Afrin and Kobane.

The strikes were part of Turkey's military operation in northern Syria launched on August 24. Ankara has sent in tanks and has been striking jihadist targets while supporting Syrian opposition fighters in their battle to retake IS-controlled territory.

The goal of the operation was to remove IS from the Turkish border -- which last month Ankara said it achieved -- while also aiming to halt the westward advance of the YPG.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday that Turkey would not "wait for terrorist organisations to come and attack us".

"These organisations, wherever their activities are, wherever they are nesting, we will go (there)," he said in a speech in Ankara.

"Instead of dealing with the flies, we will drain the swamp."

Erdogan has previously said he wants to create a 5,000-square-kilometre (1,900 square-mile) safe zone in Syria by pushing further south in the operation dubbed "Euphrates Shield".   Source: AFP