Clashes amid efforts for Kurd pullout from Syria border town
By MEHMET GUZEL and BASSEM MROUE 20 àctobre 2019
▻https://apnews.com/406a5d997d4f4594b3310500e0958375
AKCAKALE, Turkey (AP) — Kurdish-led fighters and Turkish-backed forces clashed sporadically Sunday in northeastern Syria amid efforts to work out a Kurdish evacuation from a besieged border town, the first pull-back under the terms of a U.S.-brokered cease-fire. Turkey said one of its soldiers was killed in the day’s violence.
The planned evacuation of Kurdish fighters and civilians from the town of Ras al-Ayn would open the way to a pull-out of the fighters from a broader swathe of territory along the border, a senior official in the Kurdish-led forces told the Associated Press
The official, Redur Khalil, said Saturday evening that the evacuation could take place Sunday if there were no new problems.
Both sides accuse each other of repeatedly violating the three-day old cease-fire. Turkey’s Defense Ministry said the soldier was killed in a Kurdish attack with anti-tank weapons and small arms fire near the border town of Tal Abyad.
That brought the Turkish military’s death toll to seven soldiers since it launched its offensive against Kurdish-led fighters in northeast Syria on Oct. 9.