- Title: Turkey intensifies Syria campaign
- Date: 11th October 2019
- Summary: QAMISHLI, SYRIA (AS FILMED FROM NUSAYBIN, TURKEY) (OCTOBER 11, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SMOKE BILLOWING OUT AFTER TURKISH SHELLING/ AUDIO OF EXPLOSIONS AND GUNFIRE HEARD IN THE BACKGROUND RAS AL AIN, SYRIA (AS FILMED FROM CEYLANPINAR, TURKEY) (OCTOBER 11, 2019) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF SMOKE BILLOWING OUT/ AUDIO OF EXPLOSIONS HEARD IN THE BACKGROUND
- Embargoed: 25th October 2019 12:01
- Keywords: fire Operation Peace Spring Qamishli Turkey Ras al Ain Syria shelling military operation smoke
- Location: QAMISHLI, SYRIA (AS FILMED FROM NUSAYBIN, TURKEY), RAS AL AIN, SYRIA (AS FILMED FROM CEYLANPINAR, TURKEY)
- City: QAMISHLI, SYRIA (AS FILMED FROM NUSAYBIN, TURKEY), RAS AL AIN, SYRIA (AS FILMED FROM CEYLANPINAR, TURKEY)
- Country: Turkey
- Topics: Conflicts/War/Peace,Military Conflicts
- Reuters ID: LVA001B0NJNEV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Turkey stepped up its air and artillery strikes on Kurdish militia in northeast Syria on Friday (October 11), escalating an offensive that has drawn warnings of humanitarian catastrophe and turned Republican lawmakers against U.S. President Donald Trump.
The incursion, launched after Trump withdrew U.S. troops who had been fighting alongside Kurdish forces against Islamic State militants, has opened a new front in the eight-year-old Syrian civil war and drawn fierce international criticism.
On Friday, Turkish warplanes and artillery struck around Syria's Ras al Ain, one of two border towns that have been the focus of the offensive. Reuters journalists heard gunfire there from across the frontier in the Turkish town of Ceylanpinar.
Some 120 km (75 miles) to the west, Turkish howitzers resumed shelling near the Syrian town of Tel Abyad, a witness said.
Explosions were also visible in Syria's Qamishli across southeast Nusaybin district.
Turkish forces have seized nine villages near Ras al Ain and Tel Abyad, said Rami Abdulrahman, director of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the war.
At least 32 fighters with the SDF and 34 Turkey-backed Syrian rebels have been killed in fighting, while 10 civilians have been killed, Abdulrahman said. The SDF said 22 of its fighters were killed on Wednesday and Thursday.
Turkey says it has killed hundreds of SDF fighters in the operation and one Turkish soldier has been killed.
(Production: Umit Ozdal, Mehmet Emin Caliskan) - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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