Syria calls on UN to condemn Turkish attacks on Kurds

Damascus addresses UN over Turkey's shelling of its northern territory as Kurdish fighters say they will not retreat.
15 Feb 2016 06:53 GMT | War & Conflict , Middle East , Syrian Civil War , Syria, Turkey
Turkey says thousands of Syrians have massed on the Syrian side of the border seeking refuge in the past few weeks [AP]
Fighters from the SDF in Hasakah province, after they took control of the area [Reuters]
Syria's foreign ministry has condemned Turkey's shelling of Kurdish fighters in northern Syria and sent two letters voicing its concern to the United Nations, Syrian state media reported.

"Turkish artillery shelling of Syrian territory constitutes direct support to the armed terrorist organisations," the ministry told the UN Secretary General and the Security Council's Chairman on Sunday.

In the past two days, Turkish forces have shelled Kurdish-held areas in Syria's northern province of Aleppo, as it urged fighters with the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), the armed wing of the Syria's Democratic Union Party (PYD), to leave areas it had captured there.

"The Syrian government expresses strong condemnation of Turkey's repeated attacks on the Syrian people and its transgression into the Syrian territory, calling these attacks a gross violation of the Syrian sovereignty and a flagrant breach of the UN Charter's objectives and principles, the rules of the international law and the Security Council's counterterrorism resolutions," the letters said.

The shelling came after Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned on Saturday that Ankara would, if necessary, take military action against fighters from the PYD if they do not retreat from the territories they gained in the last few days from Turkish-backed Syrian armed groups..