Fighting persists in Syria

Reports of shelling and gunfire in the Kurdish-held town of Ras al-Ain on Friday cast doubt on the cease-fire Turkey agreed to just the day before. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would halt the offensive to let Kurdish fighters retreat.

Is the agreement failing? Erdogan denied that additional fighting had taken place. But a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said Turkey continued land and air bombing on Friday around Ras al-Ain. The cease-fire agreement, which the Kurds were not a party to, mandates roughly half a million Kurds leave the buffer zone near the Turkish border. It’s unclear where they would go if they withdrew. In return, the agreement relieves Turkey of sanctions President Donald Trump said he would impose.

Dig deeper: Read Mindy Belz’s report in Globe Trot about atrocities that have already unfolded on the ground in Syria.