Conflict between Turkey and Kurdish groups rises around key dam in northern Syria

TISHRIN DAM, Syria — A key dam in northern Syria has become a flash point in the conflict between Kurdish forces and Turkish-backed armed groups, which has intensified in the weeks since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in a lightning offensive.

Over a thousand protesters from Kurdish areas in northeast Syria gathered Wednesday afternoon at the Tishrin Dam on the Euphrates River in Aleppo province, a critical source of both water and electricity that has been at the center of clashes.

Protesters called for an end to Turkish airstrikes, which they said are damaging vital infrastructure and endangering civilian lives.

Turkish drones and warplanes remained in the air during the protest, and airstrikes targeted areas near the march route, according to participants and a war monitor. The health administration in Kobani said the strikes killed five civilians and injured 15 others.

Turkey, for its part, accused the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces of using civilians as “human shields” by encouraging them to come to the area of the fighting.

A coalition of Turkish-backed groups in Syria, known as the Syrian National Army, are carrying out attacks to take control of regions near the border with Turkey that are under control of Kurdish groups. Heavy fighting has been reported in areas near the Tishrin Dam, some 90 kilometers (60 miles) east of the city of Aleppo.

“While we were walking in this march, there were about 13 or 14 airstrikes around us,” said Berfin Dumar from Kobani, who joined Wednesday’s protest. “They tried to silence our voices so we wouldn’t be able to protect this dam.”

Farhan Haj Issa, co-chair of the executive council of the Autonomous Administration in Kobani, called for Syria’s new authorities and a U.S.-led coalition that has allied with Kurdish forces in the fight against the Islamic State to help bring about a halt to hostilities.

“After the collapse of the Baath regime, we were supposed to enter a new phase of dialogue and laying foundations to end the crisis,” he said, referring to the ruling party under Assad. “Instead, the Turkish state and its mercenaries have increased instability, added to the crisis, and turned Syria into a haven for those spreading corruption.”

He called on “whoever leads the government in Damascus to take responsibility and end the brutality and violence.”

In a later interview, Haj Issa also addressed the U.S.-led coalition.

“We stood united with the coalition against international terrorism,” he said. “Now, it’s time for them to stand with us against this aggression.”

The new Syrian government is de facto led by the Islamist former insurgent group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which allied with the Turkish-backed groups in the offensive that toppled Assad.

HTS leader Ahmad al-Sharaa has called for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces to be integrated in the national army that the new authorities in Damascus are attempting to form from a patchwork of armed factions.

The state-run Anadolu Agency quoted unnamed Turkish defence ministry officials Thursday as saying the SDF was using “innocent civilians as human shields” in the Tishrin Dam region, adding that the practice is against “international law, human rights and humanity.”

Turkey views the SDF as an extension of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, which is listed as a terror organization by Turkey and several other states, and has conducted several cross-border operations against the group since 2016.

The SDF is, however, allied with the United States in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria.

The Turkish government has repeatedly threatened to launch a new military offensive unless the Syrian Kurdish fighters lay down arms.

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Martany reported from Irbil. Associated Press staff writer Suzan Fraser in Ankara contributed.