Turkish PM confirms attacks on US-backed Kurdish forces

August 22, 2016 22:44

Turkey's military has twice attacked US-allied Kurdish opposition fighters in northern Syria, Ahmet Davutoglu, the country's prime minister has confirmed for the first time.

In an interview with A Haber television late on Monday, Davutoglu said Turkey had warned members of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) not to cross to the west of the Euphrates river and if they did, Turkey would attack.

"We struck twice," he said, without giving any further details.

Turkey regards the PYD, and its military wing the People's Protection Units (YPG) as the Syrian offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has fought an insurgency in the Kurdish-majority southeast of Turkey since 1984.

But the YPG, which controls a large area of northern Syria bordering Turkey, is considered a key ally of the US-led coalition fighting the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq.

Davutoglu's comments came after Syrian Kurdish fighters accused the Turkish military of attacking their positions in northern Syria from where they expelled IS after fierce clashes in June.

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