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Turkey Strikes Kurdish Positions in Northern Syria


FILE - A Syrian Kurdish militia member of the YPG patrols near a Turkish army tank as Turks work to build a new Ottoman tomb in the background in Esme village in Aleppo province, Syria, Feb. 22, 2015.
FILE - A Syrian Kurdish militia member of the YPG patrols near a Turkish army tank as Turks work to build a new Ottoman tomb in the background in Esme village in Aleppo province, Syria, Feb. 22, 2015.

The Turkish army struck Kurdish targets in northern Syria east of the Euphrates River on Sunday.

Turkey's official Anadolu news agency said that artillery strikes hit positions belonging to the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, in Zor Moghar.

The village in northern Aleppo's countryside is across the Euphrates that separates Turkey-backed Syrian opposition forces and the YPG, which Turkey considers a terror organization linked to an insurgency within its own borders.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and Kurdish Hawar news agency also reported the shelling, saying Turkish artillery targeted other villages east of the Euphrates as well. Hawar said there were no reports of casualties.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly warned of expanding military operations along the Syrian border to clear it of "terror."

The Observatory said the rare shelling in the villages near Kobani, a stronghold of the Kurdish fighters, came while Kurdish fighters were on high alert following Turkish threats.

The United States backs the Kurdish fighters who combat the Islamic State group in Syria. That support has driven a wedge between the two NATO allies.

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