Turkey claims to have caused 20 casualties to Kurdish militias in the north of Syria

On Monday, the Turkish Ministry of Defence claimed to have caused 20 casualties among the Kurdish militias People's Defence Units (YPG) in the north-east of Syria, in a strip that Turkey controls since it launched the operation "Source of Peace" in autumn 2019.

“Our heroic commandos dealt another heavy blow to the PKK/YPG terrorist organisation. Twenty PKK/YPG terrorists trying to infiltrate the Peace Spring region from the south to carry out an attack were neutralised with the successful intervention of our commandos,” Turkey’s Defence Ministry said on Twitter.

On Sunday, he had reported in identical terms on the "neutralisation" of 15 members of the YPG, the Kurdish militia that Ankara considers as a local branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the Kurdish guerrilla in Turkey considered as a terrorist also by the EU and the USA. 

Turkey uses the term "neutralizing" to define the enemy's casualties, but without specifying whether they are killed, injured or imprisoned.

The ministry did not specify the location of the fighting in the area, a strip about 150 kilometres long and 30 kilometres wide south of the Syrian cities of Tel Abiad and Ras al Ain, but the Kurdish administration in northeast Syria has been reporting fighting around Ain Issa, south of Tel Abiad, for weeks. 
 

This town is located on the strategic M4 motorway and is just outside the limit of the 30-km strip under Turkish control, which was agreed upon in 2019 by negotiations between Turkey and Russia. 

On December 20, the so-called Syrian National Army (SNA), a group of militias supported by Turkey, officially announced an offensive against Ain Issa. 

Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance led by Kurdish YPG militia, have since denounced frequent incursions of SNA fighters with the support of the Turkish artillery. 

Ain Issa is under the control of the SDF, but has a Russian military presence, according to the pact concluded last year between the Kurdish forces, Damascus and Moscow, by which the Turkish offensive in the northeast of Syria was stopped.