Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu confirmed Tuesday that the country’s military forces had struck Kurdish positions near the border in northern Syria.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Last week, Kurdish fighters in Syria accused the Turkish military of firing on their positions near the northern Syrian town of Tell Abyad, which the Kurds claimed as part of their “autonomous administration” last week.
“We struck twice,” Davutoglu said in an interview with Turkish television channel A Haber, not specifying the details of the operation.

He also stressed that the Turkish authorities have previously warned members of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) not to cross the Western bank of the river Euphrates saying that Turkey would attack.

Ankara considers the PYD an affiliate of the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK), which is prohibited in Turkey.
Kurds form the largest ethnic minority in Turkey accounting for 20 percent of the population. Relations between the two nations have been strained since 1984 after the Kurds had declared independence.
Tensions between the Turks and the Kurds escalated in July when Ankara launched a military campaign against the PKK after the group had claimed responsibility for the murders of two Turkish police officers.