The Kurdish YPG militia said the Turkish army shelled its positions in a village on the outskirts of the ISIS-held town of Jarablus in northern western Syria and urged Ankara to halt its "aggression" against its forces. Several tank rounds from across the border had hit its positions and the Turkish army was targeting them instead of the "terrorists", a YPG statement said. "It is an aggression that should be stopped," it said. Turkish tanks shelled the village of Zur Maghar wounding at least four allied fighters, a monitoring group and activists said. "A number of shells fired by Turkish tanks fell on the village of Zur Maghar, which is controlled by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG)," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. "Four fighters were injured," the group added. Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said the four were members of a non-YPG rebel force fighting alongside the Kurds against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) group. Zur Maghar lies along the border with Turkey, east of the town of Jarabulus, in Aleppo province. Abdel Rahman said the incident appeared to be the most serious Turkish targeting of Kurdish-controlled areas in the Syrian conflict. Activists said there had been cross-border fire before but that the overnight incident was particularly serious because of the context. In recent days, Turkey has begun striking ISIS in Syria and arresting the group's sympathizers at home, but it has also targeted the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK), a Kurdish group with strong links to the YPG in Syria. Turkey considers the PKK a "terrorist organization," and in recent days has hit the group's positions in northern Iraq with the heaviest air strikes since August 2011. "This shelling comes after Turkey declared war on Daesh [ISIS] and a war against the PKK," Syrian Kurdish activist Mustafa Ebdi said. "Now the YPG is facing attacks from ISIS and Turkey." The YPG has proved Syria's most effective force against ISIS, but its successes have been eyed suspiciously by Turkey because of its links to the PKK. ‘Situation in the Mideast' Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed the situation in the Middle East, especially in Syria and Iraq, and better cooperation in fighting ISIS, the Kremlin said late on Sunday. During a telephone conversation, both sides stressed that all interested states should boost efforts to successfully combat the spread of terrorism and extremism, the Kremlin said in a statement. NATO called an emergency meeting on Tuesday to discuss security at the request of Turkey after a recent suicide bombing there and to discuss Turkish operations against Islamic State and PKK Kurdish militants.
