Special to WorldTribune.com
Turkey’s military carried out attacks on Kurdish and Syrian regime targets in Aleppo province on Feb. 13, reports said.
Turkish forces shelled Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) targets near the town of Azaz, and also responded to fire from Syrian regime forces on a military guard post in Turkey’s southern Hatay region, state-run Anatolia news service, quoting a military source, reported.
The attacks comes as Turkey is reportedly considering a joint ground assault in Syria with Saudi troops.
One of Turkey’s targets on Feb. 13 was the Minnigh airbase in Syria, which was taken on Feb. 10 by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) from Islamist rebels, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.
Ankara considers the PYD and its YPG militia to be branches of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Ankara would, if necessary, take military action against the PYD: “We can if necessary take the same measures in Syria as we took in Iraq and Qandil,” he said in a televised speech.
Davutoglu was referencing Turkey’s bombing campaign last year against PKK targets in their Qandil mountain stronghold in northern Iraq.