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 A large-scale joint ground operation is still unlikely: Washington
has ruled out a major offensive. But the request shows how swiftly a
Russian-backed advance in recent weeks has transformed a conflict
that has drawn in most regional and global powers.
The offensive, supported by Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias as well
as Russian air strikes, has brought the Syrian army to within 25 km
(15 miles) of Turkey's frontier. Kurdish fighters regarded by Turkey
as hostile insurgents have also exploited the collapse of positions
held by other rebel groups to seize ground and extend their presence
along the border.
The advances have increased the risk of a military confrontation
between Russia and Turkey. Turkish artillery returned fire into
Syria for a fourth straight day on Tuesday, military sources said,
targeting the Kurdish YPG militia which Ankara says is being backed
by Moscow.
"We want a ground operation. If there is a consensus, Turkey will
take part. Without a ground operation it is impossible to stop this
war," a Turkish official told reporters at a briefing in Istanbul.
"Turkey is not going to have a unilateral ground operation ... We
are discussing this with allies," the official said, declining to be
named in order to speak more freely.
 Turkey on Monday accused Russia of an "obvious war crime" after
missile attacks in northern Syria killed scores of people, and
warned the YPG it would face the "harshest reaction" if it tried to
capture a town near the Turkish border.
Russian air support for the Syrian government offensive has
transformed the balance of power in the 5-year-old war in the past
three weeks.
World powers meeting in Munich last week agreed to a pause in the
fighting, but that is not set to begin until the end of this week
and was not signed by the warring Syrian parties. In the meanwhile,
Damascus says its objectives are to recapture Aleppo, Syria's
biggest city before the war, and seal off the border with Turkey
that has served as the main supply route into rebel held territory
for years.
Those would be the government's biggest victories of the war so far
and probably end rebel hopes of overthrowing President Bashar
al-Assad by force, the objective they have sought since 2011 with
the encouragement of the West, Arab states and Turkey.
With hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in area the
government aims to seize, Turkey and others accuse Moscow of
deliberately firing on civilian targets such as hospitals to force
residents to flee and depopulate the territory.
Almost 50 civilians were killed when missiles hit at least five
medical facilities and two schools in rebel-held areas of Syria on
Monday, according to the United Nations, which called the attacks a
blatant violation of international law.
At least 14 were killed in the northern town of Azaz, the last rebel
stronghold before the border with Turkey. Prime Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu said a Russian missile was responsible and vowed that
Turkey would not let Azaz fall into YPG hands.
Moscow on Tuesday strongly rejected Turkish accusations that it had
committed a war crime after the missile strikes.
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"We categorically do not accept such statements, the more so as
every time those making these statements are unable to prove their
unfounded accusations in any way," President Vladimir Putin's
spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"Our relations (with Turkey) are in a deep crisis. Russia regrets
this. We are not the initiators of this."
DOUBTS OVER GROUND TROOPS
The advances by the YPG risk creating friction between Turkey and
its allies, including the United States.
Ankara sees the Syrian Kurdish militia as an extension of the
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) which has fought a three-decade
insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey's southeast.
"The PYD has become the legionnaire, the paid soldiers of Russia's
regional plans and made it a priority to harm Turkey," Davutoglu
told his ruling AK Party at a meeting in parliament on Tuesday.
But the United States sees the YPG as one of few effective ground
forces fighting radical Islamic State militants in Syria, and has
lent the group military support. Washington has so far ruled out
sending its own ground troops into Syria, apart from small numbers
of special forces.
Sunni Arab Gulf states including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) said this month they were ready to send ground forces
as part of an international coalition against Islamic State,
providing Washington takes the lead.
But Turkey's focus on the threat from the YPG means it cannot
necessarily count on such support from NATO, which, while reluctant
to pressure Ankara in public, is working behind closed doors to
discourage it from targeting the Kurds and from an escalation with
Russia.
"The Kurds are part of the conflict in Syria, but also in Iraq, and
therefore they should also be part of the solution," NATO Secretary
General Jens Stoltenberg said at the Munich Security Conference over
the weekend.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier urged both Russia
and Turkey to calm hostilities.
"It is my clear expectation that Moscow and Ankara adhere, in their
military and political approach, to the commitments made in Munich,
and that we see a measurable reduction in military activities even
before final agreement on a ceasefire," he said in a statement on
Tuesday.
(Additional reporting by Darya Korsunskaya in Moscow, Robin Emmott
in Brussels, Noah Barkin in Berlin, Daren Butler in Istanbul;
writing by David Dolan and Nick Tattersall; editing by Peter Graff)
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