ISTANBUL – A Turkish soldier was killed and another wounded in an attack bySyrian Kurdish forces on Sunday despite a ceasefire deal brokered by theUnited States, the defence ministry said.
“One of our heroic comrades fell martyr and another was wounded afteranti-tank and small arms fire by… terrorists during their reconnaissanceand surveillance mission” in the Tal Abyad border area, the ministry saidin a statement.
The army returned fire in self-defence, it added.
Turkey had agreed to suspend its Syria offensive for five days to allowKurdish forces to withdraw from a safe zone along the border.
But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has warned he will “crush the heads” ofKurdish forces if they did not pull back from the zone.
On Saturday, Turkey and Kurdish forces accused one another for violatingthe ceasefire agreement.
The Turkish defence ministry said Sunday that Kurdish forces carried out 20attacks.
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“Despite all the hostile acts in violation of the agreement, a convoy of 39vehicles, mostly ambulances, safely entered and exited Ras al-Ain onSaturday” to help evacuate the wounded, the ministry said.
In an interview with AFP, Turkish presidency spokesman Ibrahim Kalin saidAnkara abided by the agreement and urged the US to use its leverage toensure Syrian Kurdish forces’ pullout.
“We are committed to this agreement: Within five days they are supposed toleave and we have told our American colleagues to use their leverage, theirconnections to make sure that they leave without any incidents,” he toldAFP in Istanbul on Saturday.
Meanwhile, the top figure on the Kurdish side, Syrian Democratic Forces(SDF) commander Mazloum Abdi, told AFP that Turkey was blocking his forces’withdrawal and trying to blame the deal’s collapse on the Kurds.
The Turkish offensive launched earlier this month has prompted hundreds ofthousands to flee their homes in the latest humanitarian crisis of Syria’seight-year civil war. -APP/AFP
