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Turkish Forces Shell Kurdish Targets In Northern Syria

The Turkish army has shelled Kurdish militia targets near the city of Azaz in northwest Syria, according to reports. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) said that the Menagh military air base located south of Azaz in Syria’s north-western province of Aleppo, had been targeted by Turkish artillery forces on Saturday. Kurdish fighters had seized the airbase from Nusra Front earlier this week Yahoo news reports: Turkish artillery on Saturday bombarded areas of Aleppo province in northern Syria controlled by Kurdish forces, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The monitoring group’s head, Rami Abdel Rahman, said Turkish shelling struck areas of Aleppo, including Minnigh, recently taken by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia from Islamist rebels. Ankara considers the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) and its YPG militia to be branches of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state. The shelling came shortly after Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said Ankara would, if necessary, take military action against the PYD. A YPG source told AFP that the Turkish shelling targeted the strategic Minnigh military airport, which Kurdish forces retook late on Wednesday. “We can if necessary take the same [...]