…As Turkey says U.S. “playing with fire” in setting up Syrian force***

Heavy clashes broke out in the Libyan capital Tripoli on Monday, leaving at least nine people dead and forcing the airport to suspend all flights.

Heavy gunfire and artillery could be heard from the city center and Mitiga airport said all flights had been suspended until further notice.

The fighting pitted the Special Deterrence Force (Rada), one of the most powerful groups in the city, against a rival group based in Tripoli’s Tajoura neighborhood.

Rada acts as an anti-crime and anti-terrorism unit and controls Mitiga airport and a large prison next to it. It is occasionally targeted by rivals whose members it has arrested.

A health ministry official said the bodies of nine combatants had been brought to a nearby hospital.

Local media also reported that at least 28 people had been wounded.

Mitiga is a military air base near the center of Tripoli that has been the city’s main airport for civilian flights since the international airport was partly destroyed by fighting in 2014.

The international airport remains out of service.

Rada said the airport had been attacked by an individual called “Bashir ‘the Cow’” and others it had been seeking following their escape from a detention facility controlled by Rada elsewhere in Tripoli.

Rada posted pictures of streets around the airport, showing pick-up trucks mounted with guns and a tank.

Tripoli has been controlled by a patchwork of armed groups since a 2011 uprising that toppled long-time leader Muammar Gaddafi and led to the splintering of the country.

The factions sometimes clash in turf battles or over killings or detentions of their members, but there has been less open fighting in recent months after several groups aligned with the internationally recognized government, including Rada, consolidated their control of large parts of the capital.

In the meantime, Turkey on Monday said the U.S. is “playing with fire” by setting up a Syrian border security force including Kurdish militia forces.

The U.S.-led coalition said on Sunday that it was working with its Syrian militia allies to set up a new border force of 30,000 personnel.

The move has added to Turkish anger over U.S. support for Kurdish-dominated forces in Syria.

Turkey regards the Kurdish YPG militia, which will form part of this force, as a terrorist group.

Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said that Washington “is taking worrying steps to legitimise this organisation and make it lasting in the region”.

“It is absolutely not possible for this to be accepted; Turkey will continue its fight against any terrorist organisation regardless of its name and shape within and outside its borders”.

Turkey’s Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said the U.S. training of the new “Border Security Force” was the reason the U.S. charge d‘affaires was summoned in Ankara while President Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman said the development was unacceptable.

The force will be deployed at the borders of the area controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of militias in northern and eastern Syria dominated by the Kurdish YPG.

In an email to Reuters, the coalition’s Public Affairs Office confirmed details of the new force reported by The Defense Post.

About half the force will be SDF veterans, and recruiting for the other half is under way, the Public Affairs Office said.

The force will deploy along the border with Turkey to the north, the Iraqi border to the southeast and along the Euphrates River Valley, which broadly acts as the dividing line separating the U.S.-backed SDF and Syrian government forces backed by Iran and Russia.

U.S. support for the SDF has put enormous strain on ties with NATO ally Turkey, which views the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The group has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey and is considered a terrorist group by the European Union, Turkey and the U.S.

Syria’s main Kurdish groups have emerged as one of the few winners of the Syrian war and are working to entrench their autonomy over large parts of northern Syria.

Washington opposes those autonomy plans, even as it has backed the SDF, the main partner for the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Syria.

The coalition said the BSF would operate under SDF command and about 230 individuals were currently undergoing training in its inaugural class, “efforts are taken to ensure individuals serve in areas close to their homes.’’

Therefore, the ethnic composition of the force will be relative to the areas in which they serve.

“More Kurds will serve in the areas in northern Syria.

“More Arabs will serve in areas along the Euphrates River Valley and along the border with Iraq to the south,” the coalition’s Public Affairs Office said.

It said that the base of the new force is essentially a realignment of approximately 15,000 members of the SDF to a new mission in the Border Security Force as their actions against ISIS draw to a close.

“They will be providing border security through professionally securing checkpoints and conducting counter-improvised explosive device operations.

“The coalition and SDF forces were still engaging Islamic State pockets in Deir al-Zor province,’’ the U.S.-led coalition said.

The U.S. has about 2,000 troops in Syria fighting Islamic State and has said it is prepared to stay in the country until it is certain that the Islamic State is defeated.

It said that those stabilisation efforts can be sustained and that there is meaningful progress in U.N.-led peace talks on ending the conflict.

The Syrian government in Damascus has declared the U.S. an illegal occupation force and its SDF allies as “traitors”.

A top Syrian Kurdish politician said that the U.S. appeared in no hurry to leave Syria.