Turkey shells YPG targets in northern Syria for second day: Monitor

The Turkish army shelled positions held by Kurdish-backed militia in northern Syria for a second day on Feb. 14, killing two militants, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group has said. 

Turkey on Feb. 13 demanded the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militants withdraw from areas that it captured in the northern Aleppo region in recent days, including the Menagh air base. The shelling has targeted those areas. 

Turkey has been alarmed by the expansion of Kurdish sway in northern Syria since the start of the conflict in 2011. The YPG controls nearly all of Syria's northern frontier with Turkey, and has been a close ally of the United States in the campaign against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria. 

But Ankara views the group as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu said on Feb. 13 that the shelling had taken place under "the rules of engagement against forces that represented a threat in Azaz and the surrounding area". 

He demanded that the Menagh base be evacuated and said he had spoken to U.S. Vice President Joe Biden to make that point and stress that the PYD was an extension of the PKK and a direct threat to Turkey. 

The shelling intensified at 2 a.m. (0000 GMT) before dying down but not stopping, said the Observatory, which reports on the war using a network of sources on the ground. 

The Kurdish-backed Syria Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance was also fighting Syrian militants near the town of Tel Rifaat in the province of Aleppo, the Observatory said. 

One of the armed groups in the SDF, Jaysh al-Thuwwar, warned Turkey against any escalation, saying if it "has goals in our dear...