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ANKARA: Turkey will not allow the Syrian border town of Azaz to fall to Syrian Kurdish fighters, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday, warning of a “severe response” if they advance.
“We will not let Azaz fall,” Davutoglu was quoted as saying by private NTV television on his plane en route to Ukraine.
“The YPG (the People’s Protection Units, a Syrian Kurdish militia) will not be able to cross to the west of the Euphrates (river) and east of Afrin,” he added.
Turkey confirmed on Monday that it shelled advancing Kurdish fighters in northern Syria for a third day.
Foreign ministry spokesman Tanju Bilgic said Ankara “retaliated in kind” when an attack from an area under YPG control targeted a border post in Turkey.
“Currently YPG elements were forced out of the Azaz neighborhood. If they come closer to Azaz, they will receive the most severe response,” Davutoglu said.
“The necessary intervention will be made (by Turkey) against the YPG when it is required.”
Meanwhile, airstrikes on Monday destroyed a hospital in northwestern Syria supported by Doctors Without Borders (MSF), killing at least seven people and leaving more missing, the group said.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor, said the raids were believed to have been carried out by Russian warplanes.
MSF did not assign blame for the attack, but said another eight people were missing, presumed dead, in the incident.
It said the dead included five patients, a caretaker and a hospital guard, and that the missing eight were all staff members.