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The commander of a Kurdish-led force in Syria has denied any links to a deadly attack near Ankara claimed by Kurdish PKK militants, after Turkish strikes on Kurdish-controlled Syria killed more than one dozen people in retaliation.
Turkey carried out airstrikes against targets linked to Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria after Wednesday's shooting and suicide bombing that killed five people at a defense company near the Turkish capital.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the attackers had infiltrated from neighboring Syria, vowing there would be no let-up in the fight against Kurdish militants.
“We have opened an internal investigation and I can confirm that none of the attackers entered Turkey from Syrian territory,” Mazloum Abdi, the head of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), told AFP.
The SDF is a US-backed force that led the fight against the Islamic State group in its last Syrian strongholds before its territorial defeat in 2019.
It is dominated by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), considered by Ankara to be an offshoot of the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which claimed responsibility for the attack on Ankara.
“We have no connection with this attack that took place in Ankara,” Abdi said Saturday evening from Hasakah, a large city run by the semi-autonomous Kurdish administration in northeastern Syria.
“Our battlefields are inside Syrian territory,” he added.
Turkish strikes on Kurdish-controlled Syria since Wednesday have killed 15 civilians and two fighters, according to Abdi.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said Turkey had launched more than 100 strikes, most using drones, since Wednesday.
It said civilian infrastructure, including bakeries, grain silos and power plants, was hit, as well as military installations and checkpoints used by Kurdish forces.
“It seems that (Turkey's) goal is not only to respond to the events that took place in Ankara, but also to target the institutions and livelihoods of the population,” Abdi said.
“The main objective is to weaken and eliminate the (semi) autonomous administration, forcing the population to migrate,” he said.
Abdis said he was open to dialogue to ease tensions, but demanded an end to Turkish attacks, which he said were “ongoing” and suggest a potentially larger operation.
“We are ready to resolve issues with Turkey through dialogue, but not under the pressure of attacks. These operations must therefore be stopped so that dialogue efforts can continue,” Abdi said.
Turkish troops and allied rebel factions control swathes of northern Syria following successive cross-border offensives since 2016, most targeting the SDF.
“The Turkish state is taking advantage of current events in the Middle East, as attention is focused on Gaza, Lebanon and the Israeli attack on Iran” to launch new attacks against Syria, Abdi said.
Abdi criticized his U.S. allies for failing to protect Kurdish forces, saying the U.S.-led coalition's position “seems weak.”
The United States has around 900 troops in Syria as part of an anti-jihadist coalition.
“Their response is not up to the level required to stop the attacks, and pressure must be put on Turkey,” he added, asserting that the strikes against Syria “do not only concern us but also affect their strengths.
The US presidential election on November 5 could also weaken support for the SDF if Donald Trump is elected, according to Abdi.
In 2019, Trump announced his decision to withdraw thousands of US troops from Kurdish-held Syria, paving the way for a Turkish invasion of that country that same year.
“In 2019, we had an unfortunate experience with the administration of US President Trump,” the SDF commander said.
“But we are convinced that the United States (…) makes its decisions based on its strategic interests in the region.”
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