BEIRUT,— Kurdish-backed militias in Syria agreed Tuesday to a US initiative to stop fighting Turkish forces whose week-old incursion in the country has stoked tensions between Washington and Ankara.

The truce was announced separately by a senior US defence official in Washington and the Kurdish-backed Syrian fighters, but Turkey neither confirmed nor denied it had agreed to hold fire.

A Kurdish military official said a ceasefire between Turkey and Kurdish-backed militia fighters was holding. But Turkish military sources denied there was any such agreement, while a Turkish-backed Syrian rebel commander characterized it only as a “pause” and said that military operations would soon resume.

Turkey launched an unprecedented cross-border offensive into Syria last week, saying it was aimed at ridding the frontier of both Islamic State group jihadists and Kurdish YPG militia.

Syrian Kurds with their People’s Protection Units (YPG) becoming a key partner of the US-led coalition fighting IS. The YPG is also a key component of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which groups diverse factions battling the jihadists. The SDF has a total of about 30,000 Kurdish fighters and about 5,000 Arab fighters.

Ankara fears the emergence of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syrian would bolster the separatist ambitions of Turkey’s own Kurds.

At the weekend Turkish forces killed several Kurdish fighters while its tanks rolled across the border to help Syrian Arab rebels rout IS from the frontier district of Jarabulus.

The military operation triggered alarm bells in Washington, which is trying to contain the violence between its Turkish and Kurdish allies.

“In the last several hours, we have received assurance that all parties involved are going to stop shooting at each other and focus on the ISIL threat,” US Central Command spokesman, Colonel John Thomas, said using an acronym for IS.

“It’s a loose agreement for at least the next couple of days and we are hoping that will solidify” Thomas said.

He said the Turkish and SDF had opened communications with the United States and between each other “with the goal of limiting hostilities”.

The Kurdish-backed Jarablus Military Council supported by the SFD confirmed a truce had been reached.

“We agreed on a ceasefire with the Turkish state via the United States and the international coalition” that is fighting IS, said council spokesman Ali Hajo.

Speaking to AFP by telephone, Hajo said the truce took effect at midnight (2100 GMT Monday) and was expected to last “for an unspecified period of time”.

“We are continuing to negotiate (with the Turkish forces) through the Americans,” he said without elaborating.

Sharfan Darwish, a spokesman for the Manbij Military Council, said a ceasefire between Turkey and the Jarablus Military Council was holding.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor reported calm Tuesday on the southern front of Jarablus, which Turkish forces captured from IS jihadists last week on the first day of their incursion.

But Turkey neither confirmed nor denied the claim, saying only it awaited the fulfullment of a Kurdish promise to the United States to retreat east of the Euphrates river “as soon as possible”.

Two senior Turkish military sources denied any such truce had been agreed. A commander in one of the Turkish-backed Syrian rebel groups that have clashed with SDF-allied groups south of Jarablus also denied such a deal.

“There is no truce and no ceasefire. But there has been a pause for some time,” the commander, who declined to be identified, told Reuters by telephone, adding that the operation would resume shortly.

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus confirmed Monday the army aimed to prevent the creation of a Kurdish-controlled corridor running nearly the entire length of the border.

Syrian Kurds have established three autonomous zones, or Cantons of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin and a Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan (northern Syria) in 2013. On March 17, 2016 Syria’s Kurds declared a federal region in Syrian Kurdistan.

Ankara sees the YPG as a “terrorist” offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party and fears an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria would bolster the PKK in southeast Turkey.

Also on Monday, Turkey warned it would carry out more strikes on the US-backed YPG in Syria if it fails to retreat from the border area.

But analysts said further Turkish involvement in Syria’s five-year war and clashes with the YPG were fraught with risks and could stoke tensions with NATO ally Washington.

Defending a buffer zone between Kurdish-controlled areas on either side of the Euphrates could suck Turkey deeper into the conflict, said Aykan Erdemir, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Copyright ©, respective author or news agency, AFP | Reuters | Ekurd.net

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