Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Monday said Ankara would soon create safe zones 30 km (20 miles) beyond its southern borders to combat what he characterized as terrorist threats, in a likely reference to Kurdish armed groups in northern Syria.
Ankara has already conducted three incursions into northern Syria since 2016, mainly targeting the U.S.-backed Kurdish YPG.
Damascus sees the incursions as a violation of the country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
On Wednesday, Syria’s foreign ministry said it had sent a letter to the United Nations secretary-general and the Security Council, describing Turkey’s actions as illegitimate.
“They amount to what can be described as war crimes and crimes against humanity,” it said in a statement carried by the state news agency.
Meanwhile, the Turkish defense ministry said five Turkish troops have been killed and two others injured in an offensive in northern Iraq.
Three soldiers were killed and four wounded in a rocket launch attack by the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the ongoing clashes with the militants, and two of the wounded later died at a hospital, according to a ministry statement.
Meanwhile, Turkish security forces killed seven members of Syria’s so-called Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria, the ministry said earlier in the day.
Ankara sees the YPG as the Syrian branch of the PKK.
In April, Turkey launched the ground and air offensive in northern Iraq against the PKK’s targets in Metina, Zap and Avasin-Basyan regions, which angered Baghdad.
Turkey regularly conducts cross-border incursions on the PKK bases in northern Iraq.
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