Martin Chulov reports from north-east Syria on the deadliest day yet of the Turkish offensive

In a wooden hut at the back of a hospital, a woman cradled the head of a dead man and dabbed away grime and blood with a sponge. A blanket covered the man’s mutilated lower half. His blood-soaked military fatigues were still wrapped around his chest.

On a table behind, another body lay zipped into a large blue bag – a young woman this time, also dressed in green and wearing the patches of Kurdish forces. The medical worker straightened her head and gently swept the dead woman’s hair from her face. “We have five martyrs now,” she said, pointing across the makeshift morgue. “Three military and two civilians. The fighters were trying to rescue the others.”

Border residents feel the impact as fighting between Turkish and Kurdish forces escalates

On Wednesday, children in the Turkish town of Akçakale were happy to get a day off from school in honour of the launch of Operation Peace Spring aimed at Kurdish forces over the nearby border with Syria. They ran around the streets singing army songs and waving Turkish flags. “Get out of our way,” tabloid headlines read.

By Thursday the mood had changed drastically. Akçakale’s streets were dark with smoke from mortar and rocket fire after the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) launched a ferocious counter-attack from Tal Abyad, just over the border.

There were signs of panic in Ras al-Ayn on Wednesday after Turkish forces launched an offensive into northern Syria. The move was triggered by Donald Trump's announcement that US troops would withdraw from the area, where thousands of captured Isis fighters and their families are held by Kurdish forces

• Turkey launches military operation in northern Syria