Turkey

AKCAKALE, Turkey (AP) — Turkish forces faced fierce resistance from U.S.-allied Syrian Kurdish fighters on the third day of Ankara’s offensive in northern Syria as casualties mounted, international criticism of the campaign intensified and estimates put the number of those who fled the violence at 100,000. In a complicating twist, Washington said its troops also came under fire from NATO ally Turkey.

ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey stepped up its air and artillery strikes on Kurdish militia in northeast Syria on Friday, escalating an offensive that has drawn warnings of humanitarian catastrophe and turned Republican lawmakers against U.S. President Donald Trump.

The incursion, launched after Trump withdrew U.S. troops who had been fighting alongside Kurdish forces against Islamic State militants, has opened a new front in the eight-year-old Syrian civil war and drawn fierce international criticism.

Turkey (AP) -- In the face of widespread international criticism for his military foray into northern Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan remains defiant, standing by his pledge to return as many refugees as possible to a border corridor that will be carved out by force.

“We will rebuild an area for 1 million people, for those who want to return to their country and don’t have a home to go back to,” he told members of his governing party on Thursday to widespread applause.

ANKARA, Oct 11 (NNN-ANADOLU) – Up to four civilians, including a child, were killed and 70 injured, in Turkish border towns, by mortars and rockets fired from Syria, local officials said.

“A nine-month old Syrian national and a civil servant working at the local tax office have been killed” in mortar and rocket fire that hit border towns of Akcakale and Ceylanpinar, a statement of the governor’s office of the southeastern province of Sanliurfa said.

AKCAKALE, Turkey (AP) — Turkey pressed its air and ground assault against U.S.-allied Kurdish forces in northern Syria on Thursday for a second day, pounding the region with airstrikes and an artillery bombardment that raised columns of black smoke in a border town and sent panicked civilians scrambling to get out.

ISTANBUL/ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkish forces have killed more than 100 militants in an assault on Kurdish militia in northeast Syria, Turkey’s president said on Thursday, as heavy shelling and air strikes against targets in the region continued.

According to a senior Turkish security official, armed forces struck weapons and ammunition depots, gun and sniper positions, tunnels and military bases.

Jets conducted operations up to 30 km (18 miles) into Syria, and a Reuters witness saw shells exploding just outside the town of Tel Abyad.

AKCAKALE, Turkey (AP) — Turkey launched airstrikes, fired artillery and began a ground offensive against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria on Wednesday after U.S. troops pulled back from the area, paving the way for an assault on forces that have long been allied with the United States.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the start of the campaign, which followed the abrupt decision Sunday by U.S. President Donald Trump to essentially abandon the Syrian Kurdish fighters, leaving them vulnerable to a Turkish offensive that was widely condemned around the world.

AKCAKALE, Turkey (Reuters) - Turkish forces and Syrian rebel allies will push into Syria “shortly”, a Turkish official said on Wednesday, in an operation world powers fear could open a new phase in Syria’s war and deepen regional turmoil.

Turkey has been poised to advance into northeast Syria since U.S. troops began vacating the area in an abrupt policy shift by U.S. President Donald Trump widely criticised in Washington as a betrayal of America’s Kurdish militia allies.

7 Oct 2019; MEMO: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump discussed Turkey’s plans to establish a “safe zone” east of the Euphrates River in Syria in a phone call on Sunday, but the White House said US forces would not be involved, Reuters reports.

The Turkish presidency said after the call that Erdogan and Trump had agreed to meet in Washington next month, following an invitation by the US president.

7 Oct 2019; MEMO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has approved a request from a Turkish university to open three campuses in northern Syria.

The campuses will be affiliated with Gaziantep University, which is the south-eastern city bordering Syria. The faculties will be located in Turkish controlled cities.