US President Donald Trump has compared the deadly conflict between Turkish forces and Kurds in north-eastern Syria to a fight between children.

“Like two kids in a lot, you have got to let them fight and then you pull them apart,” he told a rally in Texas. Turkey has agreed to a US request to suspend operations so long as Kurdish fighters leave the border area. But fighting appeared to continue on Friday despite a denial by Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Concern is growing about possible war crimes by Turkey and allied militias since the offensive began on 9 October. On Friday, French President Emmanuel Macron complained he had only learned about the US withdrawal from Syria via a tweet from Mr Trump. “I understood that we were in Nato, that the United States and Turkey were in Nato,” Mr Macron told reporters at an EU summit.

“Like everyone else, I learned by tweet that the United States had decided to withdraw its troops.” Mr Erdogan moved against Kurdish forces in Syria after Mr Trump announced he was pulling US forces out of Syria’s border region. the Turkish leader’s aim is to push Kurdish militants – regarded by Turkey as terrorists – away from northernmost Syria and create a “safe zone” for resettling up to two million Syrian refugees currently in Turkey.

Between 160,000 and 300,000 people are reported to have fled their homes since the fighting started, and there are fears the Turkish operation may lead to the ethnic cleansing of the local Kurdish population.

//SC//BBC//