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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Syrian Democratic Forces accuse Turkey-backed rebels of ethnic cleansing |
| 2016-10-28 |
| "Once you open the Gates of Hell, you don't get to chose which Demons emerge..." [ARA News] Aleppo – The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have accused Turkey of carrying out an ethnic cleansing campaign in northern Syria and called for an investigation. The Kurdish-led SDF also accused Turkey of bombing their positions while they fight ISIS. Tensions between the SDF forces and Turkey-backed rebels have been growing after Turkey said they would take the cities of al-Bab and Manbij in northern Syria. Turkey’s military and allied rebels of the Euphrates Shield also attacked SDF positions near Tel Rifaat and Afrin in the northern countryside of Aleppo earlier this week, but failed to advance. “Turkey, with its militias, emptied the population of al-Rai town and the nearby villages, displacing thousand son people and preventing them from returning,” SDF spokesman Shervan Darwish said on Thursday. “Turkey accuses our forces of the ethnic cleansing. However, Turkey with its allied rebels are committing criminal acts,” he said. Furthermore, the official said the groups backed by Turkey are jihadists. “Ideologically, militias led by Turkey in Syria are a copy of ISIS. These groups are all affiliated with the Islamic Movement of Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat al-Nusra in Idlib,” Darwish said. “We call on the international community to visit the town of al-Rai and surrounding villages in order to investigate these crimes,” he said. “The world should be more serious to fight the mentality of terrorism and extremism.” The SDF spokesperson said the groups that Turkey supports are anti-Western, unlike the Kurdish-led SDF forces. “These extremist groups expelled the US military from al-Rai, calling the West ‘infidel and Crusader’, the same slogans raised by ISIS,” he added. |
| Posted by:badanov |