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KURDS SEIZE SYRIAN BORDER TOWN AMID ANKARA CONCERNS
July 18, 2013 - 15:06 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - A Syrian Kurdish party with links to Kurdish
militants in Turkey has seized control of a Syrian border town after
days of clashes with Islamist fighters, the Turkish military said,
according to Reuters.
The capture of Ras al-Ain on Syria's northeastern border with Turkey
by the Democratic Union Party (PYD) will heighten Ankara's fears
that the emergence of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria could
embolden homegrown militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),
which is fighting for autonomy in Turkey.
Turkey's foreign minister voiced concern at the spillover of violence
from the war in its southern neighbor and called again on the United
Nations Security Council, which has yet to come to a consensus over
Syria, to act.
In a statement late on Wednesday, July 17 the military said Ras
al-Ain had fallen under the control of the PYD, which it described
as a "separatist terrorist organization". Fighting in the town had
now stopped.
Turkish troops had shot at PYD fighters in Syria in accordance with
its rules of engagement after two rocket propelled grenades fired
from Syria struck a border post on the Turkish side of the frontier.
The return fire was the second time in as many days the military has
answered in kind after several stray bullets from Syria struck the
police headquarters and several homes in the adjacent Turkish town
of Ceylanpinar on Tuesday.
Two Turkish citizens, including a 15-year-old boy, were killed by
stray bullets in what was the most serious spillover of violence into
Turkey from Syria in weeks. The military said it had now strengthened
security along that part of the border with armored vehicles.
http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/165979/
July 18, 2013 - 15:06 AMT
PanARMENIAN.Net - A Syrian Kurdish party with links to Kurdish
militants in Turkey has seized control of a Syrian border town after
days of clashes with Islamist fighters, the Turkish military said,
according to Reuters.
The capture of Ras al-Ain on Syria's northeastern border with Turkey
by the Democratic Union Party (PYD) will heighten Ankara's fears
that the emergence of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syria could
embolden homegrown militants of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK),
which is fighting for autonomy in Turkey.
Turkey's foreign minister voiced concern at the spillover of violence
from the war in its southern neighbor and called again on the United
Nations Security Council, which has yet to come to a consensus over
Syria, to act.
In a statement late on Wednesday, July 17 the military said Ras
al-Ain had fallen under the control of the PYD, which it described
as a "separatist terrorist organization". Fighting in the town had
now stopped.
Turkish troops had shot at PYD fighters in Syria in accordance with
its rules of engagement after two rocket propelled grenades fired
from Syria struck a border post on the Turkish side of the frontier.
The return fire was the second time in as many days the military has
answered in kind after several stray bullets from Syria struck the
police headquarters and several homes in the adjacent Turkish town
of Ceylanpinar on Tuesday.
Two Turkish citizens, including a 15-year-old boy, were killed by
stray bullets in what was the most serious spillover of violence into
Turkey from Syria in weeks. The military said it had now strengthened
security along that part of the border with armored vehicles.
http://www.panarmenian.net/eng/news/165979/