Turkish news agencies say the country has increased its military presence along its southern border against threats from Kurdish militants in war-torn northern Syria.
The official Anadolu news agency said Saturday that Turkey dispatched artillery to Kilis Province to reinforce units there, AP reported.
The six-vehicle convoy included tanks and howitzers to be positioned across from the Kurdish-controlled Syrian region of Afrin, according to the private Dogan news agency.
Turkey has been vehemently opposed to the presence of the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, in northern Syria. The country considers the YPG, which is part of Kurd-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces alliance a terror group and an extension of Kurdish militants operating inside Turkey.
But US regards the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party and its military wing YPG as key ally against the self-style Islamic State terror group in Syria and has provided them with arms, air support as well as the military advisers.
The YPG, which has 60,000 fighters, has seized swathes of Syria from IS.
On July 27, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that the SDF had captured half of Raqqa.
Turkey fears the creation of an autonomous Kurdish region in northern Syria that will not be loyal to Ankara and would spur the separatist ambitions of Turkey’s own Kurds.
On June 23, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey will “never allow” the establishment of a state in Syrian Kurdistan.
Turkey intervened militarily in northern Syria to contain both Kurdish factions and the IS.
The Ankara-backed forces launched operations against IS last year, taking territory in northern Syria as Kurdish forces also competed to carve out territory close to the Turkish border.
It put the two groups on a collision course, with all-out war only averted after the US intervened to back its Kurdish-Arab allies.
Add new comment
Read our comment policy before posting your viewpoints