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Turkey says Kurds driven back from Syrian town

Turkey says Kurds driven back from Syrian town

Turkey KurdsBEIRUT (AP) – The latest on the civil war in Syria (all times local):
2:40 p.m.
Turkey says Kurdish forces have been expelled from areas around the northern Syrian town of Azaz after a weekend of cross-border shelling.
Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Monday vowed the “harshest reaction” should the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, advance on Azaz, a town near the border held by Syrian rebels.
Kurdish-led forces had recently gained ground along the border with Turkey at the expense of the rebels, who have been struggling to hold ground amid a massive offensive by Syrian government forces backed by Russian airstrikes.
Davutoglu says “we won’t let Azaz fall,” adding that “the whole world should know this.”
Turkey described its cross-border shelling as a retaliatory measure.
European Union officials are calling on Turkey to halt its military action in Syria in the hope of implementing a plan to cease hostilities.
1:00 p.m.
Opposition activists say a missile has struck a children’s hospital in a north Syrian town, killing at least 10 people and wounding dozens.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says the missile hit the hospital in the town of Azaz near the Turkish border on Monday, killing 10 and wounding more than 30.
Activist Bahaa al-Halaby who is based in the northern city of Aleppo says it was a ballistic missile.
The Observatory says the dead include three children and a pregnant woman.
Syrian troops have been on the offensive in northern Syria under the cover of Russian airstrikes since Feb. 1.
9:40 a.m.
A spokeswoman for an international aid agency says a makeshift clinic supported by Doctors Without Borders has been destroyed by an airstrike in northern Syria.
Mirella Hodeib says her group, also known by its French acronym MSF, had no immediate word on casualties from Monday’s airstrike in the town of Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian warplanes targeted the makeshift hospital, destroying it and killing and wounding dozens.
An aid official says at least one patient died and nine Syrian staffers are missing. The official was not authorized to talk to reporters and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Syrian troops have been on the offensive in northern Syria under the cover of Russian airstrikes.

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