Turkey clashes with Assad regime in Syria for first time
Troops sent by the Assad regime to fight alongside a Kurdish militia in northern Syria were shelled by Turkey yesterday in a major escalation of the multi-sided conflict. Turkey had warned that it would continue its offensive against the Kurdish-held city of Afrin, even if the Syrian government carried out its threat to send its forces to fight alongside the YPG, the Kurdish militia defending the area.
President Erdogan of Turkey claimed that he had persuaded President Putin to intervene with the regime. However, videos posted online by pro-Assad journalists showed fighters cheering and waving Syrian flags as they headed off from a Shia-majority town near Aleppo saying they were going to fight in Afrin. Shortly afterwards reports came in that the convoy had come under Turkish shellfire, the first intentional clash between Turkey and the regime’s ground forces. “Turkish regime forces targeted the locations of popular forces with artillery fire as they arrived to the Afrin region,” the Syrian state news agency said. Turkey claimed that its action had compelled the advancing forces to retreat, but state media said that they had continued.
The intervention by Damascus came in response to an appeal by the Kurds as their defences began to crumble. They have held the Turks and their Free Syrian Army allies at bay for a month.The Turks took ten villages on Monday and more yesterday, and looked to link them to the border town of Azaz, already under their control. They are determined to stop the YPG — the Syrian branch of the PKK guerrilla group in Turkey — from establishing control of the border areas. “In the coming days, swiftly, we will lay siege to the centre of the town of Afrin,” Mr Erdogan told the Turkish parliament. “We will block the way of those who come to help from outside the city or the region.”.....
According to analysts, the pro-Assad forces wore the insignia of the Liwa al-Baqir militia rather than the official army. The regime had indicated that the troops it would send were from the “popular forces”, a term used for the local militias it has recruited from the start of the conflict. The Liwa al-Baqir, named after the fifth Shia Imam, was originally recruited from a local tribe in Aleppo province who were persuaded by Iran to convert to the Shia faith. They have been deployed against rebels and Islamic State.
Any escalation in the fighting between the regime and Turkey could further complicate the conflict. US, Russian and Iranian forces are already involved in the war on different sides, and Israel bombed Iranian positions in Syria this month, and suffered a rare loss of an F-16 jet shot down in response.
Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, called for direct negotiations between Damascus and Ankara. However, he did not confirm Mr Erdogan’s claim that President Putin had agreed to intervene on Turkey’s behalf.