Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu confirmed on Monday that the Turkish military has bombed locations of the Kurdish militant group People's Protection Units (YPG), in Syria.
Davutoglu said Turkey has repeatedly warned the Democratic Union Party (PYD), a political wing of the YPG, not to cross west of the Euphrates river and that its military would hit their locations the moment they do, according to Todays Zaman.
"We have said PYD will not pass to the west of the Euphrates. We'll hit them if they do.' And we did hit them twice. A Syrian helicopter was downed last year. An unmanned aerial vehicle was hit as well. It's not possible to do anything in Syria despite Turkey," he said in a televised statement, according to Hurriyet Daily News.
The YPG, which is considered a key ally of the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS, said the strikes were meant to provoke them.
"It seems that the Turkish state is trying to provoke our units (YPG) to respond in a bid to justify its military intervention in our region," an YPG official told ARA News.
"The Turkish authorities are highly concerned about our continuous progress against ISIS terrorists, and they are trying to stop us under the pretext that we are merely fighting for the establishment of an autonomous Kurdish state on their border," he added.
