The death toll in Turkey’s offensive into northern Syria spiked to more than 170 in the conflict’s second day Thursday, Turkish officials claimed — as Kurdish forces pushed back with mortar strikes.

“The operation is currently continuing with the involvement of all our units,” said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a speech.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry said the toll had grown to 174 Kurdish fighters in what the Turks have dubbed Operation Peace Spring.

Syrian activists, however, painted a much less stark picture, tallying the dead at eight Kurdish fighters and seven civilians.

A third source, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said the dead included at least 23 members of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a US-backed Kurdish militia battling ISIS in the region.

Turkey believes the Kurdish fighters are aligned with the Kurdish People’s Protection Units — also known as YPG — who are waging a decades-long insurgency inside Turkey and are considered terrorists in Ankara.

President Trump on Thursday continued to defend his decision to withdraw US troops from the region, paving the way for Turkey’s attack on the US’ Kurdish allies — a move that has drawn bipartisan criticism on Capitol Hill.

“I am trying to end the ENDLESS WARS,” Trump tweeted. “Some want us to send tens of thousands of soldiers to . . . the area and start a new war all over again.

“Others say STAY OUT, let the Kurds fight their own battles (even with our financial help),” Trump continued. “I say hit Turkey very hard financially & with sanctions if they don’t play by the rules! I am watching closely.”

The death toll was also reported to include several civilians caught in the crossfire as Turkish jets and artillery continued to pound what a senior Turkish security official described as Kurdish sniper nests, bases and ammunition caches.

As the shells rained down, those few civilians who hadn’t already fled for safer ground joined an exodus tens of thousands strong, leaving entire border towns virtually deserted.

At a bridge between Syria and Iraq, a bottleneck created a jam of cars stretching more than half a mile.

“When we came, there were about four lanes of cars on the road and a 1-kilometer-long queue of cars,” Murad Hassan, a Syrian Kurd fleeing the city of Qamishli, told the Associated Press.

An estimated 450,000 people live within 3 miles of the border, according to a joint statement issued Thursday by a coalition of 14 international aid agencies.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu said that the military intends to drive 19 miles into northern Syria, establishing a buffer against what Turkey has characterized as incursions launched from Syria.

Turkey’s stated goal is to carve out a “safe zone” to which roughly 2 million Syrian refugees — displaced by years of civil war and ISIS’ reign of terror — will be repatriated from Turkey.

But the bloodshed spilled back across the border on Thursday, as mortars fired from Syria rocked Turkish towns within striking distance of the frontline.

At least six Turkish civilians — among them four children — were killed by the counter-offensive, according to local officials.

As blood was drawn on both sides of the border, nations around the globe continued to call on Turkey to stand down and seek less aggressive means of resolving their security concerns.

“Renewed armed hostilities in the northeast will further undermine the stability of the whole region, exacerbate civilian suffering and provoke further displacements which will further increase the number of refugees and IDPs [internally displaced people] in the region,” read a statement issued jointly by the governments of Britain, Germany, France, Belgium, Poland and Estonia.

Erdogan warned the European Union to butt out — threatening to open the floodgates and send the 3.6 million refugees Turkey hosts to relocate in Europe.

Cavusoglu reiterated the proposal later Thursday.

“The majority of them — if we allow them today — are ready to go to European destinations,” he told reporters in a briefing. “If the EU and European countries don’t want to work with Turkey then it will be their problem as well.”

President Trump, who has repeatedly stated his opposition to American military intervention in the area, laid out the nation’s options in another Thursday tweet.

“We have one of three choices,” he wrote. “Send in thousands of troops and win Militarily, hit Turkey very hard Financially and with Sanctions, or mediate a deal between Turkey and the Kurds!”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) — a typically steadfast Trump backer but one of the most outspoken opponents of the American withdrawal — on Thursday unveiled the framework for a potential package of sanctions with Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen.

Asked about the possibility of any sort of intervention — financial or otherwise — Cavusoglu stated the Turkish position plainly.

“If there is any measure taken against us, we will retaliate and respond in kind,” he said.

With Wire Services