CEYLANPINAR, Turkey (AP) — The Latest on Turkey’s offensive in northern Syria (all times local):
1:05 p.m.
The U.N. human rights office is urging Turkey to investigate reported cases of “summary executions” that could have been committed by a Turkish-backed armed group in northern Syria.
Rupert Colville, a spokesman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, on Tuesday cited video footage showing fighters with the Ahrar al-Sharqiya armed group filming themselves capturing and executing three Kurdish captives on a highway in northern Syria on Saturday.
He cited reports of another alleged summary execution of a Kurdish woman politician on the same road, also on Saturday.
Colville told reporters in Geneva that Turkey “could be deemed responsible” for violations committed by armed groups over which it has “effective control” or the group’s operations during which the violations occurred.
He said the videos were widely circulated on social media.
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12:50 p.m.
Syrian state media says government forces have entered the center of the once Kurdish-held northern town of Manbij and raised the national flag.
A video released by SANA showed some people gathered in the main square waving Syrian flags Tuesday morning.
Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces had left the area at the height of the civil war, leaving it to the Kurdish groups.
The flashpoint area housed U.S. troops who patrolled the region since 2017 to deter a confrontation between Turkey and Kurdish fighters.
The Kurdish Hawar News Agency said American troops left the town on Tuesday morning moving west toward the Tishrin Dam on the Euphrates.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signaled on Monday that his military was ready to begin the assault Manbij.
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12:30 p.m.
Italy’s foreign minister says that his country will examine all existing arms contracts with Turkey to see if they can be legally cancelled.
Luigi Di Maio told lawmakers on Tuesday that Italy will block all future arms exports to Turkey, as agreed the previous day by a summit of EU foreign ministers condemning Turkey’s military offensive in northern Syria.
Di Maio called on Turkey to “immediately suspend all military operations in Syria,” saying it alone was responsible for the aggression and that they only way to resolve the Syrian crisis is through diplomacy.
Turkey has defied widespread opposition from its NATO allies and pressed on with its military operation against Kurdish groups in Syria, now in its seventh day.
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10:30 a.m.
Turkish artillery is pounding suspected Syrian Kurdish positions near a town in northeast Syria as Turkey’s military incursion enters its seventh day.
An Associated Press journalist on Tuesday reported heavy bombardment of targets in the countryside of Ras al Ayn, days after Turkey announced that it had captured the border town. Turkish jets also carried out at least one airstrike.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, reported Kurdish fighters had retaken the town.
A Turkish military official denied reports that Turkey had begun an assault on the Kurdish-held town of Manbij, without giving further detail.
Meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan defended Turkey’s offensive in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, calling on the international community to support the initiative or “begin admitting refugees” from Syria.