\nISTANBUL\/AFRIN,Syria: The Turkish president is suggesting that Turkey\u2019s military could soon launch a new operation across the border into northern Syria, in zones held by Syrian Kurdish fighters.<\/p>\n
\nRecep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s statement is renewing a threat to expand Turkey\u2019s military operations into areas east of the Euphrates River held by US-backed Syrian Kurds.<\/p>\n
\nAnkara considers the Syrian Kurdish militia as terrorist and part of a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey.<\/p>\n
\nErdogan says: \u201cGod willing, very soon … we will leave the terror nests east of the Euphrates in disarray.\u201d He spoke on Friday at a military ceremony honoring Turkish commando soldiers.<\/p>\n
\nTurkey launched incursion into Syria in 2016 and 2018, into areas west of the Euphrates, pushing Daesh militants as well as Syrian Kurdish fighters from the border area.<\/p>\n
\nTurkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that the Kurdish YPG militia has not left the northern Syrian town of Manbij, contrary to a US-Turkish agreement, and Turkey will do what is necessary.<\/p>\n
\n\u201cThey are now digging trenches in Manbij. What does this mean? It means \u2018we\u2019ve prepared the graves, come and bury us\u2019,\u201d Erdogan said at a rally in southern Turkey. \u201cThey said they would abandon the area in 90 days, but they haven\u2019t. We will do what is necessary.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nMeanwhile, residents of Syria\u2019s Afrin region say they are suffering a litany of abuses at the hands of Turkish-backed fighters.<\/p>\n
\nThey say the fear of harassment has kept them shuttered inside their homes since Ankara and its Arab opposition allies overran the then overwhelmingly Kurdish city in March after a two-month air and ground offensive.<\/p>\n
\nTheir testimonies, given under pseudonyms because of fear of retribution, paint a picture of a chaotic city with little protection for civilians. \u201cThey robbed my son\u2019s house and didn\u2019t leave a thing \u2014 not even the clothes,\u201d says 55-year-old resident Ahmad.<\/p>\n
\nHis own motorcycle and 20 gas canisters were seized by opposition fighters, who also looted his family\u2019s liquor store.<\/p>\n
\nSince Turkish troops and pro-Ankara Arab fighters captured the city from the Kurdish People\u2019s Protection Units (YPG), the UN and human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have documented widespread abuses.<\/p>\n
\nHalf of the enclave\u2019s 320,000 residents fled, according to a recent report by the UN Commission of Inquiry, and most are unable to return.<\/p>\n
\nThose who have often found their homes occupied by fighters or by Arab civilians displaced from other parts of Syria, the UN said.<\/p>\n
\nOther returned to homes \u201cstripped of furniture, electrical appliances and all decor,\u201d in large-scale looting.<\/p>\n
\nAhmad and his family fled the fighting but came back recently to scenes of devastation with their property looted and their hometown barely recognizable. \u201cWhen we came back, not even our tractor was left,\u201d he said. \u201cThey don\u2019t even let us sleep at night, with all the shooting.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nTurkey has denied allegations of abuses, and fighters say proven offenders are punished.<\/p>\n
\nBut residents say not enough is done to curb violations. And it is not only Kurds who have fallen victim to the lawlessness.<\/p>\n
\nSamia, an Arab student in Afrin, says she has been permanently scarred by her father\u2019s brutal killing by armed men trying to steal their family car. \u201cThe first time they tried, my father kicked them out of the house. They came back a second time for revenge and killed him,\u201d she recounts. Fighters investigated, but \u201cthe killer went to jail for just one month,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\nSeparately, The UN\u2019s World Food Program is preparing for a vast new wave of refugees likely to flee to Turkey if a looming conflict breaks out in Syria\u2019s flash point Idlib region, WFP Executive Director David Beasley said Friday.<\/p>\n
\nBeasley said the agency is \u201cpre-positioning rations for short term, middle range, along the Turkish border.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nHe said the WFP is working with Turkish, Russian, Syrian, US and other officials \u201cto do what we can to minimize the impact when a war truly goes into full scale mode there.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Erdogan renews threat of another Syria incursion as Kurdish militia still in Manbij ISTANBUL\/AFRIN,Syria: The Turkish president is suggesting that Turkey\u2019s military could soon launch a new operation across the border into northern Syria, in zones held by Syrian Kurdish fighters. Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s statement is renewing a threat to expand Turkey\u2019s military operations into…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":18253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/18253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}