BERLIN — Germany said Saturday it is halting sales of weapons to Turkey over its widely criticized operation against Kurdish militias in northern Syria.

Germany, along with many of its allies, has condemned the offensive that Ankara says is targeting the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia — a force that has played a key role against the Daesh (so-called IS) group in Syria.

It joins the fellow NATO members the Netherlands and Norway, along with Finland, in suspending arms sales to Turkey.

"In the context of the Turkish military offensive in northeastern Syria, the government will not issue any new permits for any military equipment that could be used in Syria by Turkey," German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas was quoted as telling the Sunday edition of Bild.

Ankara, meanwhile, stepped up its assault on Kurdish-held border towns in northeastern Syria on Saturday, defying mounting threats of international sanctions, even from Washington.

Buoyed by a night of steady advances in the countryside, Turkish troops and their Syrian allies entered the battleground town of Ras Al-Ain, sources on both sides said.

The Turkish Defense Ministry hailed its forces' capture of the first Kurdish-held town of the offensive so far. But Ras Al-Ain's Kurdish defenders denied the town had fallen and an AFP correspondent near the town said Turkish troops and their Syrian allies had entered but had yet to capture it.

The humanitarian disaster, apart from the damage caused by the air strikes and fighting, took a new dimension with the pro-Ankara fighters taking part in a Turkish offensive having "executed" nine civilians, a monitor said on Saturday.

"The nine civilians were executed... in the south of the town of Tal Abyad," the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. The Kurds said in a statement that a female Kurdish party official and her driver were among those killed.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, who were the main ground partner in the US-led campaign against the Daesh group, called on the United States to assume its "moral obligations" and protect them.

US President Donald Trump has faced a firestorm of criticism, even from his own domestic supporters, for abandoning a loyal ally and stands accused of giving Turkey a green light to launch the offensive after ordering American troops to pull back from the border.

The SDF have taken mounting losses against the vastly superior firepower of the Turkish army. At least 23 SDF fighters have been killed, including in overnight clashes, bringing the over death toll since the Turkish offensive began on Wednesday to 81, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor.

Turkish air strikes on Kurdish-held towns and intense artillery exchanges caused mounting casualties on both sides of the border.

The towns of Ras Al-Ain and Tal-Abyad further west have been primary goals of the Turkish offensive and have both come under heavy bombardment.

They lie at either end of a section of the border which although Kurdish-controlled has an ethnic Arab majority.

Ankara says its forces' mission is to establish a safe zone run by its mainly Arab Syrian allies in which some of the 3.6 million mostly Arab refugees from Syria can be rehoused.

But the Kurds say the Turkish invasion amounts to an attempt to redraw the ethnic map of the region at their expense. The operation has so far displaced some 100,000 people, according to the United Nations.

Roads leading out of the area have been filled with fleeing civilians, some on foot, other in vehicles piled high with their belongings.

"We always get displaced no matter where we go," Yusra Al-Saleh, 38, who fled violence along Syria's northern border, said.

The Kurdish Red Crescent said it would no longer dispatch medical teams to Ras Al-Ain because its ambulances are being hit by Turkish fire.

It said one of its medical points south of Ras Al-Ain was hit by Turkish fire Saturday, wounding an ambulance driver and damaging the vehicle.

Aid groups have warned of yet another humanitarian disaster in Syria's eight-year-old war if the offensive is not stopped.

"More people are leaving on a daily base and those numbers will go up," the World Food Program said. Most of those fleeing were heading east towards the city of Hasakeh, which has not been targeted by Turkey.

In Paris, thousands of people, some shouting "Erdogan terrorist", took to the streets of Paris and other European cities on Saturday in protest at the Turkish assault on Kurds in Syria.

Organizers said "more than 20,000 people" took part in the demonstration in Paris after Ankara stepped up its assault on Kurdish-held border towns in northeastern Syria on Saturday, defying mounting threats of international sanctions. — AFP