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Erdogan warns Kurds as Syria ceasefire gets off to rocky start

Speaking to reporters in Istanbul, Erdogan said the Kurdish forces must withdraw “without exception” from a swathe of land 30km (18.6 miles) deep inside Syria, running 440km (273.4 miles) along Turkey’s eastern border with Syria.

“If the promises are kept until Tuesday evening, the safe zone issue will be resolved,” Erdogan said.

“If it fails, the operation … will start the minute 120 hours are over.”

Ankara considers the Kurdish forces to be “terrorists” linked to Kurdish rebels inside Turkey and wants the fighters pushed back from its border. It says the “safe zone” it wants to create inside Syria would also make room to settle up to two million Syrian war refugees – out of the 3.6 million it is currently hosting.

There was no sign of any pullout by the Kurdish-led forces, however.

In a statement, the SDF said the deal only covers a 12km stretch (7.5 miles) – a much smaller section of the border than that Erdogan announced – and did not commit to pulling out from anywhere.

Columns of smoke were seen over the border town on Friday morning, and the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the Rojava Information Center said fighting continued into the afternoon as Turkish-backed Syrian fighters clashed with Kurdish forces in villages on the town’s outskirts.

Fighting quieted around 4pm local time (13:00 GMT), and the calm continued into nightfall, Kurdish fighters said.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs described the situation in northeast Syria as “reportedly calm in most areas, with the exception of Ras al-Ain, where shelling and gunfire continued to be reported” earlier on Friday.

Syrian forces have already moved into several sites previously under Kurdish control.

Erdogan is to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia, on Tuesday, the day the halt in fighting runs out. Moscow and Iran are Assad’s main military allies.

Criticism meanwhile mounted for the US-brokered deal.

Donald Tusk, president of the EU council, said it was “not a ceasefire, it is a demand for the capitulation of the Kurds” and called on Turkey to immediately halt its operation in northeast Syria.

French President Emmanuel Macron called the Turkish operation “madness.”

In Washington, US senators who have criticised the Trump administration for failing to prevent the Turkish assault in the first place said they would press ahead with legislation to impose sanctions against Turkey, a NATO ally.

Header: In this photo taken from the Turkish side of the border between Turkey and Syria, in Ceylanpinar, Sanliurfa province, southeastern Turkey, smoke billows from a fire in Ras al-Ain, Syria, Friday, October 18, 2019. [Lefteris Pitarakis/AP]