after the start of the Turkish offensive in Syria, each camp counts its dead

Turkish forces intensified their assault Friday (October 11th) against the Kurds in northern Syria. Despite warnings from the international community, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the offensive would continue.

Our special envoy is on the Turkish-Syrian border, in the city of Akçakale on the Turkish side. A town targeted by Kurdish fighters in recent days, on the front line, where Turkish troops continue to deploy.

Each camp counts its dead. In the Turkish city of Akçakale, they are four civilians, victims of the mortar shelling of Kurdish fighters. A response to President Erdogan's offensive.

At the exit of the mosque, the men hold at arm's length a small coffin of less than a meter. He is wrapped in a red and white flag. On a sheet of A4 paper hanging on the front, a name: Mohammed. He was nine months old. "We came to pray for himsays Ahmed, a Syrian refugee. He too was Syrian and a bomb fell right on his house. Now we will bury him. These bombs kill innocent children. "

For the refugee, the leaders are not the Turkish military, which triggered hostilities, but Kurdish fighters on the other side of the border: "I ask Erdogan, who is a man of great value, to allow me to join the Turkish army, and I also ask the Syrians here not to flee but to come and lend a hand to this offensive. "

Just across the border is the Syrian village of Tal Abyad, where fighting has been going on for three days. That's where Ahmed comes from. He dreams of going back when the Turkish army will, he said, "finish the job". In Akçakale, the mayor of this small Turkish town makes an improvised speech at the end of the prayer: he assures that all want peace, but that if necessary, they are ready to die for their country.

It is the Turkish army that protects usAhmed, Syrian refugee

While the crowd escorts the coffin of the child towards the cemetery, the blows of the canons resound again. Artillery fire resumed on Kurdish positions, despite protests from a large part of the western community.

"The Europeans have traveled 10,000 kilometers to bring their troops to Syria, and today we are there, but when we intervene, when we are a neighboring country, they tell us that we have not the right? We do not want terrorists at the border! ", gets carried away a man who wants to remain anonymous.

If anyone tries to attack our country, we kill himAn inhabitant of Akçakale

He simply says he's Turkish and patriotic: "We will eradicate Daesh, we will eradicate the YPG and also the PKK and with the permission of God, all terrorist groups".

The funeral becomes a manifestation. The participants point to the PKK, party of Kurdish workers, considered a terrorist organization by the Turkish government and whose proximity to the YPG, Kurdish fighters in Syria, is proven, according to Ankara. Fists stand up and slogans follow one another. The crowd shouts anger and especially its support for the military operation of President Erdogan.

The report of Matthieu Mondoloni