Dozen of observation posts would be set up by Turkey across northeast Syria, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday, insisting that a planned “safe zone” will extend much farther than U.S. officials said was covered under a fragile ceasefire deal.
Less than 24 hours after he agreed on the five-day truce to allow Kurdish forces time to pull back from Turkey’s crossborder assault, Erdogan underlined Ankara’s ambition to establish a presence along 300 miles of territory inside Syria.
On the border, itself shelling could be heard near the Syrian town of Ras Al Ain on Friday morning despite Thursday’s deal, and a spokesman for the Kurdish-led forces said Turkey was violating the truce, hitting civilian targets in the town.
According to reports from RushHourDaily, the bombardment subsided around mid-morning and a U.S. official said most of the fighting had stopped, although it would “take time for things to completely quiet down”.
According to reports from The National, Kurdish authorities in north-east Syria accused Turkey of resorting to banned weapons such as napalm and white phosphorus munitions, a charge Mr. Erdogan denied. “There are certainly no chemical weapons in the inventory of our armed forces. This is all slander against our armed forces,” he added.
But UN chemical weapons authorities said they were investigating the alleged use of white phosphorus by Turkish-backed forces.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said it was “collecting information with regard to the possible use of chemical weapons”, according to sources from The National.
Mr Erdogan warned according to reports from The National that he would resume a full-scale operation against Kurdish forces if they do not withdraw from the so-called “safe zone.”
A US official said most of the fighting had stopped, although it would “take time for things to completely quiet down”.
According to RushHourDaily, Turkey’s offensive move created a new humanitarian crisis in Syria with 200,000 civilians taking flight, according to Red Cross estimates. It also prompted a security alert over thousands of Islamic State fighters held in Kurdish jails.
Trump has praised the deal with NATO-ally Turkey as one that would save lives. Turkey cast it as a victory in its campaign to control territory more than 30 km (around 20 miles) deep into Syria and drive out Kurdish fighters from the YPG, the SDF’s main Kurdish component. Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist group because of its links to Kurdish insurgents in southeast Turkey.
“As of now, the 120-hour period is on. In this 120-hour period, the terrorist organization, the YPG, will leave the area we identified as a safe zone,” Erdogan told reporters after Friday prayers in Istanbul. The safe zone would be 32 km deep, and run “440 km from the very west to the east”, he said.
According to The National, the government of Syrian President Bashar Al Assad, backed by Moscow and Tehran, has already taken up positions in the territory formerly protected by Washington, invited by the Kurds.
Mr. Jeffrey acknowledged that Turkey was now negotiating with Moscow and Damascus over control of areas that Washington was vacating and was not covered by the US-Turkish truce pact.
“As you know we have a very convoluted situation now with Russian, the Syrian army, Turkish, American, SDF and some Daesh (ISIS) elements all floating around in a very wild way,” Mr. Jeffrey said.
“Now, the Turks have their own discussions going on with the Russians and the Syrians in other areas of the northeast and in Manbij to the west of the Euphrates. Whether they incorporate that later into a Turkish-controlled safe zone, it was not discussed in any detail.”
Related: Erdogan says Turkey will never declare ceasefire in Northern Syria
