土耳其入侵敘利亞打擊庫爾德武裝

Turkish troops have launched a ground invasion of a Kurdish enclave in north-west Syria, drawing Ankara into a difficult new front in the seven-year civil war and placing further strain on its troubled ties with the US.

土耳其軍隊對敘利亞西北部的一處庫爾德飛地發起地面入侵，使安卡拉方面在長達7年的敘利亞內戰中捲入一條艱難的新戰線，進一步加劇了其與美國的緊張關係。

On Sunday Turkish media reported Binali Yildirim, Turkey’s prime minister, as saying that a four-phase plan was under way to create a secure zone 30km deep into Syrian territory. “Our units crossed into Afrin at 11.05am,” he said. “The land operation has begun.”

土耳其媒體週日報道稱，土耳其總理比納利?耶伊爾德勒姆(Binali Yildirim)表示，該國正在實施一個四階段計劃，目的是深入敘利亞境內30公里建立一個安全區。“我軍在上午11點05分越境進入了阿夫林(Afrin)，”他說，“地面作戰已經開始。”

The offensive seeks to clear the Kurdish enclave on Turkey’s border of fighters who Ankara regards as terrorists posing a threat to its own territorial integrity but risks inflaming tensions within Syria and with the west.

這次進攻尋求在土耳其邊境的庫爾德飛地上清除被土耳其認爲是恐怖分子、對其領土完整構成威脅的作戰人員，但有可能引燃敘利亞內部的緊張，並加劇土耳其與西方的緊張關係。

Turkish officials said the ground invasion was being conducted in conjunction with Turkish-backed members of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel group. Kurdish officials and residents in the Afrin region reported heavy clashes on several fronts along the Turkish-Syrian border, with artillery fire and air strikes.

土耳其官員表示，此次地面入侵是與土耳其支持的反叛組織“敘利亞自由軍”(Free Syrian Army)的成員協同展開的。阿夫林地區的庫爾德官員和居民稱，土敘邊境的幾條戰線上發生了激烈衝突，並伴有炮擊和空襲。

The Turkish border towns of Reyhanli and Kilis were hit with retaliatory rocket fire, killing one person and injuring 32, according to Turkish media.

據土耳其媒體報道，土耳其邊境城鎮雷罕裏(Reyhanli)和基爾斯(Kilis)遭到了報復性火箭彈襲擊，造成一人死亡，32人受傷。

The assault, code named Operation Olive Branch, began on Saturday night with a wave of aerial bombardment by Turkish jets, defying a call from the US for restraint.

代號爲“橄欖枝行動”(Operation Olive Branch)的此次突擊始於上週六晚，當時土耳其戰機發起一波空中打擊，無視美國要求剋制的呼籲。

It followed a week of threats from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to invade the region to prevent Kurdish militias from forming what he termed a “terror corridor” along the Turkish border. In a sign of the operation’s potential to exacerbate domestic political tensions, Mr Erdogan warned on Sunday that any Turkish Kurds who protested against the operation would “pay a high price”.

此前一週，土耳其總統雷傑普?塔伊普?埃爾多安(Recep Tayyip Erdogan)多次威脅要入侵該地區，以防止庫爾德民兵組織在土耳其邊境開闢他所稱的“恐怖走廊”。埃爾多安週日警告稱，抗議反對此次軍事行動的任何土耳其庫爾德人都將“付出高昂代價”，表明此次行動可能加劇國內政治緊張。

The opening of a new front in the Syrian civil war is likely to aggravate Turkey’s strained relations with the US, which backs some factions of the Kurdish YPG militia fighting in eastern Syria, as well as complicating an already tangled, multi-sided war in Syria.

在敘利亞內戰中開闢一條新戰線，很可能會加劇土耳其與美國的緊張關係（美國支持在敘利亞東部作戰的庫爾德民兵組織“人民保衛軍”(YPG)的一些派別），還將使敘利亞境內一場本已混亂的多邊戰爭更加複雜化。

Ankara considers the YPG an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK), which has waged a more than three-decade insurgency against Turkey. But Washington says they are separate. While the US says it has no ties with the Kurdish force in Afrin, it has armed and trained a YPG-led force as its main partner in the fight against Isis in eastern Syria.

安卡拉方面把YPG視爲庫爾德工人黨(PKK)的分支，該組織對土耳其發動了30多年的叛亂行動。但華盛頓方面稱兩者之間沒有聯繫。儘管美國表示與阿夫林的庫爾德武裝沒有關係，但美國武裝並訓練了一支由YPG領導的部隊，作爲其在敘利亞東部打擊“伊拉克和黎凡特伊斯蘭國”(ISIS)的主要合作伙伴。