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Turkey seeks no clash with US, Russia over Syria push

Ankara - The United States and Russia both have military forces in Syria and have urged Turkey to show restraint in its campaign

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Turkey seeks to avoid any clash with US Russian or Syrian forces but will take any steps needed for its security, a Turkish minister said on Tuesday, the fourth day of an air and ground offensive against Kurdish forces in northwest Syria.
The United States and Russia both have military forces in Syria and have urged Turkey to show restraint in its campaign, Operation Olive Branch, to crush the US-backed Kurdish YPG in the Afrin region on Turkey's southern border.
The operation has opened a new front in Syria's multi-sided civil war and could threaten US plans to stabilise and rebuild a large area of northeast Syria - beyond President Bashar Al Assad's control - where the United States helped the YPG drive out Daesh fighters.
Turkey's military, the second largest in Nato, has conducted air strikes and artillery barrages against targets in Afrin, and its soldiers and allied Syrian rebels have tried to push into the Kurdish-held district from west, north and eastern flanks. With heavy cloud hindering air support in the last 24 hours, advances have been limited and Kurdish fighters have retaken some territory.
Turkish troops and the Syrian fighters have been trying to take the summit of Bursaya Hill, overlooking the eastern approach to Afrin town.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said 22 civilians had been killed in Turkish shelling and air strikes, and thousands were fleeing the fighting.
However, Syrian government forces were preventing people from crossing government-held checkpoints to reach the Kurdish-held districts of nearby Aleppo city, it said.

• MENA