Clashes renewed between National Army, YPG-led forces in Hasaka

(Zaman Al Wasl)- Clashes between Turkish-backed Syrian National Army and Kurdish-led forces were renewed in northern Hasaka province, local activists said Wednesday.

The clashes between both sides in a zone between the towns of Tal Tamr and Ras al-Ayn left dozens dead in both sides over the past few weeks.

Turkey claims the YPG is a “terrorist” offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has fought an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.

Turkey and the National Syrian Army on October 9 launched a cross-border attack against Kurdish-held areas, grabbing a 120-kilometre-long (70-mile) swathe of Syrian land along the frontier.

The operation left hundreds dead and caused 300,000 people to flee their homes, in the latest humanitarian crisis in Syria's brutal eight-year war.

Meanwhile, a YPG car bomb rocked the town Ras al-Ayn, the Turkish National Defense Ministry said Wednesday, accusing the Kurdish YPG militias of carrying such attack.

The ministry said on Twitter. "The enemy of humanity #PKK/#YPG terrorists continue to carry out car bomb attacks against civilians, this time detonating a car bomb in central Ras al-Ayn and injuring a large number of innocent civilians with children among them,"

Car bombs have become the new attack tactic used by the Kurdish militias to target Turkish-backed fighters, but this deadly tactic has claimed the lives of tens of people this week as blasts hit marketplaces and bus terminals in the towns of Azaz, al-Bab, Jarablus and Tel Abyad.

Last week, YPG’s car bomb killed 17 people and wounded 20 others in Tel Khalaf village near the border town of Ras al-Ayn, the Turkish Defence Ministry said Tuesday.

The US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group dominated by the YPG, has been controlling some 28 percent of the Syrian territories, including most of the 911-kilometer-long Syria-Turkey border.

Turkey’s military took the Kurdish-held border areas in northern Syria immediately after US forces were withdrawn. Turkey has a longstanding enmity with the Kurds and wants to push back the YPG from its border.

Ankara wants to set up a buffer zone on Syrian soil along the entire length of its 440-kilometre-long border, including to resettle some of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees currently in Turkey.

Zaman Al Wasl