Escalation is Turkish message to occupy Syria’s Manbij: military spokesman
MANBIJ, Syria (North Press) – A prominent military spokesman in northern Syria said on Friday that “Turkey is trying, through the recent military escalation on Manbij, to send a message that it will advance towards Manbij and occupy it if an appropriate environment is found.”
For more than a week, Turkish forces and Turkish-backed armed opposition factions have targeted civilian-populated areas in the countryside of Manbij, causing civilian casualties.
At the beginning of this month, Turkish forces and their affiliated factions targeted the village of Awn al-Dadat north of Manbij with about 11 mortar shells, seriously wounding two women and causing material damage in the village.
“Turkey is currently seeking to adopt a policy of shuffling the cards in the region in order to increase the area of Syrian lands it occupies,” said Shervan Darwish, spokesman for the Manbij Military Council.
He added in a statement to North Press that “there will be no progress for Turkish forces and their factions in the region without the approval of countries intevested in the Syrian issue.”
Darwish pointed out that the international actors in Syria “are trying to expand their influence and achieve their interests at the expense of the Syrians and their pain.”
He called on the international community to work to find a peaceful and political solution to the Syrian crisis that has been going on since 2011 and to end the occupation of Syrian lands.