Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has confirmed that Turkish forces attacked Kurdish militia in northern Syria on October 25, Morning Star said on October 28.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) said the next day that its forces in the border town of Tal Abyad had come under machine-gun fire from across the frontier in Akcakale.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has confirmed that Turkish forces attacked Kurdish militia in northern Syria on October 25, Morning Star said on October 28.

The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) said the next day that its forces in the border town of Tal Abyad had come under machine-gun fire from across the frontier in Akcakale.

In an interview with ATV television late on October 26, Mr Davutoglu confirmed the attack. He said Turkey was enforcing its warning to the Democratic Union Party (PYD), of which the YPG is the armed wing, not to advance west of the Euphrates river — some 50 miles west of Tal Abyad.

“We said the PYD will not go west of the Euphrates and that we would hit it the moment it did. We hit it twice,” Mr Davutoglu said. “Turkey cannot abandon its border, its fate, to any country.”

The PYD is ideologically aligned to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Turkey and the US have declared a terrorist group.

Like the article? Subscribe to Green Left now! You can also like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.

