KILIS, Turkey — Intense clashes erupted Monday on a strategic hilltop in northwestern Syria as Kurdish forces tried to enter the area a day after it was captured by Turkish troops.
Turkish military officials canceled a government-organized press tour to Bursayah Hill, separating the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin from the Turkey-controlled town of Azaz, due to what they described as “security concerns.”
Separately, in the nearby rebel-held province of Idlib, suspected Syrian government airstrikes killed at least 21 people and put a hospital out of order.
The violence has overshadowed a peace conference hosted by Russia that was due to open in Sochi on Monday. Russia, a key ally of President Bashar Assad, says it invited 1,600 representatives to the Syrian Congress of National Dialogue, but so far only the government and opposition representatives tolerated by it have shown up. The main Syrian opposition body has boycotted the talks.
The main Syrian Kurdish militia, which is fighting in Afrin and controls some 25 percent of Syrian territory, has also declined to attend, saying it holds Russia responsible for the Turkish offensive.
Alexander Lavrentiev, Russia’s envoy for Syria, downplayed the violence, saying the situation in Afrin has “somehow stabilized” and expressing hope that “potential provocations prior to and during the event won’t affect its outcome.”
“We still hope that common sense will prevail and that the leadership of the united Syrian opposition will still decide to attend the congress. This possibility has not been ruled out, and the invitations remain on the table,” he said, according to Russian state agency Tass.
The Turkish incursion began on Jan. 20, with Ankara saying it seeks to drive “terrorists” away from its border and create a safe zone in the area. Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish militia in control of Afrin, the People’s Defense Units or YPG, an extension of the Kurdish insurgency within its borders.
On Monday, Turkish authorities said they had detained 311 people for allegedly engaging in “terrorist propaganda” through social media postings critical of the Afrin offensive. The Interior Ministry said the suspects, who are accused of supporting the Syrian Kurdish forces, were detained in the past week but did not provide further details.
‘Witch hunt’
The Paris-based media watchdog Reporters Without Borders called the detentions a government “witch hunt against critics.”
Turkish troops and allied Syrian forces have met with stiff resistance as they try to push into Afrin, and the capture of Bursayah Hill marked their biggest advance since the start of the offensive. The operation has so far claimed the lives of more than 50 civilians in Afrin, three in Turkish towns along the border and five Turkish soldiers.
The Turkish-led offensive has opened a new front in the civil war, which is far from over despite recent gains by Assad’s forces and the expulsion of the Islamic State group from nearly all the territory it once held.
The government is now focused on the northwestern province of Idlib, which is dominated by al-Qaida-linked militants and home to more than 2.6 million people, nearly half of whom have fled from other areas.
