Turkey says it returns fire after attack by Syrian Kurds

June 28, 2017 12:29 pm | Updated December 03, 2021 05:13 pm IST - ANKARA, Turkey

In this November, 2014 picture, Syrian Kurds gesture from behind the barbed wire fence that marks the Turkey-Syria border on the outskirts of Kobani, seen from the Turkish side of the border outside the village of Yumurtalik.

In this November, 2014 picture, Syrian Kurds gesture from behind the barbed wire fence that marks the Turkey-Syria border on the outskirts of Kobani, seen from the Turkish side of the border outside the village of Yumurtalik.

Turkey’s military says it has returned fire after a cross-border attack by Syrian Kurdish forces.

A statement on Wednesday said the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, fired on Turkish territory overnight with anti-aircraft weapons from Syria’s Afrin region. Turkish artillery units returned fire, destroying the “detected targets.”

The YPG is the main component of the Syrian Democratic Forces, a U.S.-backed militia that is battling the Islamic State (IS) group in the extremists’ de facto capital, Raqqa. Turkey views the YPG as an extension of the Kurdish insurgency raging in its southeast.

Turkey was angered by a U.S. decision last month to arm the Syrian Kurds, fearing the weapons will end up in the hands of Kurdish rebels in Turkey.

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