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Kurdish-led Syrian forces report Turkish air raids on bases

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AP Beirut
Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria said Turkish airstrikes hit bases and residential areas today near Jarablus, a town seized by Turkey-backed rebels earlier this week.

The Jarablus Military Council said the airstrikes in Amarneh village marked an "unprecedented and dangerous escalation" after Turkish artillery shelling the day before.

The group said there was injuries but didn't specify.

It said the escalation threatens to "endanger the future of the region" and vowed to stand its ground.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights confirmed the airstrikes. Turkish officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

The Jarablus Military Council is supported by the US-backed and Kurdish-led Syria Democratic Forces.
 

Turkey sent tanks across the border to help Syrian rebels capture Jarablus from the Islamic State group in an incursion that was partly aimed at containing Kurdish-led forces.

Turkey has long suspected the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, of being linked to Kurdish insurgents in its own southeast.

It has ordered the YPG, which makes up the bulk of the US-backed Syria Democratic Forces and has been one of the most effective opponents of IS, to withdraw to the east bank of the Euphrates River, which crosses the border at Jarablus.

Elsewhere in Syria, another group of residents was evacuated from the Damascus suburb of Daraya, part of a deal struck between Syrian rebels and the government following a grueling bombing campaign and four-year siege.

State TV showed the buses leaving the area, and two activists from Daraya sent text messages as they boarded the buses to say they were leaving.

Pro-government Addounia TV said nine government soldiers abducted in Daraya were freed today as part of the deal, in which the rebels handed over control of the area in exchange for safe passage out. The Observatory said 11 buses were in Daraya to continue the evacuation.

Dozens of rebels, their families and some wounded left Daraya yesterday, in a boost for President Bashar Assad's forces as they try to secure their hold on the capital and amid a stalemate in the fight for the northern city of Aleppo, Syria's largest.

Daraya was the last remaining rebel holdout in the region known as western Ghouta and the closest to the capital.

Around 700 gunmen are to be allowed safe passage to the opposition-held northern province of Idlib, while some 4,000 civilians will be taken to temporary shelter in government- controlled Kisweh, south of Daraya.

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First Published: Aug 27 2016 | 6:13 PM IST

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