US Concerned Over Actions Of Turkish-Backed Opposition Groups In Syria - Watchdog

US Concerned Over Actions of Turkish-Backed Opposition Groups in Syria - Watchdog

The US State Department is concerned about alleged abuses being committed by Turkish-backed opposition groups in northeast Syria, the Defense Department's Lead Inspector General said in a quarterly report on Operation Inherent Resolve released Tuesday

WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th August, 2020) The US State Department is concerned about alleged abuses being committed by Turkish-backed opposition groups in northeast Syria, the Defense Department's Lead Inspector General said in a quarterly report on Operation Inherent Resolve released Tuesday.

"This quarter, the DoS [State Department] said it remained concerned by reports that Turkish-supported opposition groups may have committed human rights abuses and violated the law of armed conflict in northeast Syria," the report said.

The State Department received multiple reports regarding abuses committed by Turkish-supported forces during the October 2019 incursion in northeast Syria, the report said.

The abuses reported to the State Department included extra-judicial killings, arbitrary detentions, seizure of and resettlement of new populations in private properties, the repeated and deliberate shutting off of water access to half a million civilians in Syria, the report said.

Turkish troops crossed into Syria in early October with the stated goal of driving Kurdish YPG militia away from the border to create a safe zone where millions of Syrian refugees could be resettled.

The incursion wrapped up on October 22 under a deal with Russia, which promised that Kurdish fighters, seen as terrorists in Ankara, would leave the border area. Turkey held on to a 75-mile stretch of land between the Syrian towns of Ras al-Ayn and Tal Abyad.