BEIRUT (AP) – A US official in Syria on Friday called for an “immediate de-escalation” after days of deadly airstrikes and shelling along the Syrian-Turkish border, saying the actions are destabilizing the region and undermining the fight against the Islamic State group.
Turkey this week launched a wave of airstrikes on suspected Kurdish rebels hiding in neighboring Syria and Iraq in retaliation for a deadly November 13 bombing in Istanbul that Ankara blames on the Kurdish groups.
The groups have denied involvement in the bombings, saying the Turkish attacks killed civilians and threatened the fight against ISIS.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said 67 civilians, gunmen and soldiers have been killed in Turkish attacks in northern Syria since the airstrikes began.
Nikolas Granger, the senior US representative in northeastern Syria, said Washington “strongly opposes military action that further destabilizes the lives of communities and families in Syria, and we want immediate de-escalation.”
The developments are “unacceptably dangerous and we are deeply concerned,” said Granger, who is currently in Syria, adding that the attacks also endanger US military personnel there.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened a new land invasion of northern Syria against Kurdish groups. On Friday he said Turkey would continue its “fight against all kinds of terror inside and outside our borders”.
Both Turkey and the United States view the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, as a terrorist group for the decades-long uprisings and attacks the group has orchestrated within Turkey’s borders.
But they disagree on the status of Syria’s main Kurdish militia, the People’s Protection Units, or YPG. The Syrian-Kurdish group is a key US ally in the fight against IS.
Turkey has carried out three major incursions into northern Syria since 2016 and its forces still control part of the country.
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Kurdish officials in Syria have warned that any new Turkish incursion would disrupt the fight against ISIS, which still has sleeper cells and has carried out deadly attacks against Syrian Kurdish-led opposition forces as well as Syrian government forces in recent months.
“We take these threats seriously and are preparing to counter ground attacks,” Siamand Ali, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, told The Associated Press.
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Associated Press writers Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey and Hogir Al Abdo in Qamishli, Syria contributed to this report.