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| Nato meets to discuss Turkey's Syria campaign | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Ambassadors from all 28 Nato countries are meeting in Brussels on Tuesday morning to discuss Turkey’s campaign against Islamic State and Kurdish militants in Syria. | |
| Turkey is likely to face questions over its decision to lump its campaigns against the Kurds and Isis together into a broad “war on terror”, even though the secular Kurdish groups and Isis are themselves bitterly opposed. | |
| The meeting – called by Ankarea – will be held under article four of the alliance’s treaty, which invokes consultation but does not automatically trigger military action on the part of fellow Nato members. | |
| It comes after Turkey and the US agreed on the outlines of a plan to drive Isis out of a strip of land along the Turkish-Syrian border, according to reports, in a landmark deal that will draw Turkey further into Syria’s civil war and looks likely to increase the intensity of the US air war against Isis. | |
| Related: US deal with Turkey over Isis may go beyond simple use of an airbase | Related: US deal with Turkey over Isis may go beyond simple use of an airbase |
| The agreement to create an “Islamic State-free zone”, as officials are calling it, followed a wave of violence linked to the Syrian conflict that prompted Turkey, a Nato member, to launch air strikes for the first time against Isis and allow a coalition led by the US to use its airbases to bomb militant targets in Syria. | |
| The plan is a diplomatic victory for Turkey, which has long demanded the creation of a safe haven in northern Syria, across the 500-mile (800km) border that links the two countries, as a precondition for joining the battle against Isis. | |
| American officials told the New York Times they had agreed to work with Turkey and Syrian rebel fighters to clear a 60-mile strip of land near the border that would constitute a safe haven for Syrian refugees. Turkey hosts about 1.8 million displaced people who have fled the civil war. | American officials told the New York Times they had agreed to work with Turkey and Syrian rebel fighters to clear a 60-mile strip of land near the border that would constitute a safe haven for Syrian refugees. Turkey hosts about 1.8 million displaced people who have fled the civil war. |
| It is also not clear how the safe haven will affect the Kurds. US warplanes have spent months over Syrian skies bombing Isis to help the Kurds take the fight to the militants. But Ankara is worried that the Kurds’ successes across the border will fire up separatists at home, with whom it has fought a 30-year civil war, and has launched a crackdown on the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), which has links to Kurdish fighters in Syria – the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and its political arm, the Democratic Union party (PYD). | It is also not clear how the safe haven will affect the Kurds. US warplanes have spent months over Syrian skies bombing Isis to help the Kurds take the fight to the militants. But Ankara is worried that the Kurds’ successes across the border will fire up separatists at home, with whom it has fought a 30-year civil war, and has launched a crackdown on the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), which has links to Kurdish fighters in Syria – the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and its political arm, the Democratic Union party (PYD). |
| Suspected PKK saboteurs attacked a pipeline carrying natural gas from Iran to Turkey in Turkey’s eastern province of Agri late on Monday, halting the flow. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the attack bore the hallmark of the PKK, which has struck the pipeline before. | |
| On Monday, the YPG accused Turkey of targeting its fighters inside Syria as they laid siege to Isis-held positions close to a key border crossing, the town of Jarabulus. In a statement, the YPG said Turkey had shelled a Kurd and opposition-held town near the border with seven tank rounds, and that an hour later it had attacked vehicles belonging to the Kurdish militia. | On Monday, the YPG accused Turkey of targeting its fighters inside Syria as they laid siege to Isis-held positions close to a key border crossing, the town of Jarabulus. In a statement, the YPG said Turkey had shelled a Kurd and opposition-held town near the border with seven tank rounds, and that an hour later it had attacked vehicles belonging to the Kurdish militia. |
| A Turkish official told Agence France-Presse that the military did not intend to target the Syrian Kurds. Referring to Kurdish separatists in the PKK, he said: “The ongoing military operation seeks to neutralise imminent threats to Turkey’s national security and continues to target Isis in Syria and the PKK in Iraq.” | A Turkish official told Agence France-Presse that the military did not intend to target the Syrian Kurds. Referring to Kurdish separatists in the PKK, he said: “The ongoing military operation seeks to neutralise imminent threats to Turkey’s national security and continues to target Isis in Syria and the PKK in Iraq.” |
| Turkey has also arrested hundreds of alleged Isis and PKK members in the past few days, in retaliation for a suicide bombing earlier this month in the southern town of Suruç, a cross-border attack by Isis militants that killed a Turkish soldier, and violence against local police by PKK militants. | Turkey has also arrested hundreds of alleged Isis and PKK members in the past few days, in retaliation for a suicide bombing earlier this month in the southern town of Suruç, a cross-border attack by Isis militants that killed a Turkish soldier, and violence against local police by PKK militants. |