ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Kurdish forces in northern Syria will hand over a number of Turkish and Turkish-backed fighters in a deal mediated by Russia.
Barousek Hasakeh, of the Kurdish YPG forces, told AP that his force will hand over the bodies of nine fighters killed on Monday in clashes between the YPG and Turkish-backed Syrian rebels in the village of Ein Daqna.
Hasakeh did not say if the fighters were Turkish or Syrian.
UK-based conflict monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Russia had mediated the transfer of a number of injured fighters.
According to the Observatory, Turkey informed Russia that they were unable to evacuate fifteen injured fighters, including five Turkish soldiers, from the battlefield. Russia, therefore mediated to extract the injured by negotiating a temporary halt to hostilities in the area.
The Observatory noted that several YPG fighters were also injured, some seriously.
The injuries occurred in “violent” clashes in the northern Aleppo countryside that began with Turkish shelling of YPG positions, the Observatory reported.
Last month, Turkey began to build up forces around Kurdish positions in northwestern Syria and the Afrin region. Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak in Ankara justified the deployments saying “Afrin has become a threat to the security of Turkey.”
Ankara believes the YPG is an extension of the PKK, a banned organization in Turkey, and Kaynak alleged “terrorists” had infiltrated Turkey from Afrin, providing weapons to the PKK. “That is why Afrin must be cleared from terrorists,” he said.
The YPG has denied any organic links with the PKK.
Barousek Hasakeh, of the Kurdish YPG forces, told AP that his force will hand over the bodies of nine fighters killed on Monday in clashes between the YPG and Turkish-backed Syrian rebels in the village of Ein Daqna.
Hasakeh did not say if the fighters were Turkish or Syrian.
UK-based conflict monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that Russia had mediated the transfer of a number of injured fighters.
According to the Observatory, Turkey informed Russia that they were unable to evacuate fifteen injured fighters, including five Turkish soldiers, from the battlefield. Russia, therefore mediated to extract the injured by negotiating a temporary halt to hostilities in the area.
The Observatory noted that several YPG fighters were also injured, some seriously.
The injuries occurred in “violent” clashes in the northern Aleppo countryside that began with Turkish shelling of YPG positions, the Observatory reported.
Last month, Turkey began to build up forces around Kurdish positions in northwestern Syria and the Afrin region. Deputy Prime Minister Veysi Kaynak in Ankara justified the deployments saying “Afrin has become a threat to the security of Turkey.”
Ankara believes the YPG is an extension of the PKK, a banned organization in Turkey, and Kaynak alleged “terrorists” had infiltrated Turkey from Afrin, providing weapons to the PKK. “That is why Afrin must be cleared from terrorists,” he said.
The YPG has denied any organic links with the PKK.
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