Turkey continued shelling parts of northern Syria for a third day on Monday, insisting it would not allow Kurdish-led forces to seize key areas along the border.
The renewed shelling and fresh violence elsewhere in Syria — including a suspected Russian air strike that killed nine people at a hospital supported by Doctors Without Borders — cast doubts on international efforts for a ceasefire to take hold this week.
Top diplomats from world powers agreed at talks in Munich last Friday on a “nationwide cessation of hostilities” within a week, in the latest bid to find an end to Syria’s five-year conflict.
Following similar fire on Saturday and Sunday, Turkish shelling again hit several parts of Aleppo province on Monday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.
Among the areas hit was a road west of the town of Tal Rifaat, where a coalition of Kurdish and Arab fighters known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has launched an assault.
The town, only 20 kilometres (12 miles) from the Turkish border, is held by an alliance of mostly Islamist rebels and one of their few remaining bastions in the area.

 Map of the Syria-Turkey border region north of Aleppo, locating Turkish shelling

The SDF was advancing despite the shelling, it said, and there was heavy fighting inside the western limits of Tal Rifaat.
The SDF has already seized the nearby Minnigh airbase from rebel forces, and severed the road between Tal Rifaat and the key rebel-held town of Azaz on the border with Turkey.
Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned Monday that Ankara “will not let Azaz fall” to the SDF, adding “the necessary intervention will be made”.
He also warned the SDF to withdraw from the Minnigh airbase, saying it would be “rendered unusable” if they failed to do so.
In recent days, Washington warned the Kurds not to “take advantage” of the situation in Aleppo to seize new territory.
Turkey is also a key member of the US-led coalition fighting IS in Syria, and is allowing coalition planes to carry out sorties from its Incerlik base.

– ’Russia raids’ kill civilians –

Russia, a key backer of Bashar al-Assad which launched air strikes in Syria last year, said it would support the issue of the Turkish shelling being raised at the Security Council.
Moscow and Ankara have repeatedly clashed over Syria and on Monday Davutoglu issued a stark warning.
“If Russia continues behaving like a terrorist organization and forcing civilians to flee, we will deliver an extremely decisive response,” Davutoglu said.
Moscow says its strikes target IS and other “terrorists,” but activists and rights group say they have killed hundreds of civilians.
On Monday, the Observatory said nine people including a child were killed when Russian strike hit a hospital supported by MSF near Maaret al-Numan in Idlib province.
MSF confirmed that a hospital it supports in the northwestern province had been destroyed in air strikes and said eight members of staff were missing.
“The destruction of the hospital leaves the local population of around 40,000 people without access to medical services in an active zone of conflict,” said MSF Syria operations Chief Massimiliano Rebaudengo.
The Observatory also reported 10 civilians, including three children, were killed in suspected Russian strikes in Azaz and an area nearby.
The strikes in Azaz hit near a hospital, the monitor said.