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Turkish attack on US-backed Kurds in Syria believed imminent
Source: The Guardian
Turkish attack on US-backed Kurds in Syria believed imminent
Operation targeting ‘terror nests’ would risk inflaming tensions between Trump administration and Ankara
Martin Chulov in Beirut, and Kareem Shaheen in Istanbul
Tue 16 Jan 2018 18.22 GMT
Turkish troops and tanks near the Syrian border are making final plans to attack the US military’s Kurdish partners inside northern Syria as tensions between Ankara and Washington near unprecedented levels.
Ahead of a widely expected incursion, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, threatened to “destroy all terror nests”, a reference to Kurdish forces that the US has used as proxies in the fight against Islamic State (Isis) and Turkey views as a subversive threat.
Tensions over the Kurds, which have tested relations between two nominal allies for the past three years, spiked over the weekend, when Washington announced it would raise a border force from the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Defence Force, which led the battle against Isis in north-east Syria.
Ankara views the Syrian Kurds as an extension of the Turkish Kurdish PKK, with whom it has fought a four decade insurgency inside its borders. It has vowed not to allow Kurdish groups to dominate its border with Syria.
-snip-
Operation targeting ‘terror nests’ would risk inflaming tensions between Trump administration and Ankara
Martin Chulov in Beirut, and Kareem Shaheen in Istanbul
Tue 16 Jan 2018 18.22 GMT
Turkish troops and tanks near the Syrian border are making final plans to attack the US military’s Kurdish partners inside northern Syria as tensions between Ankara and Washington near unprecedented levels.
Ahead of a widely expected incursion, the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, threatened to “destroy all terror nests”, a reference to Kurdish forces that the US has used as proxies in the fight against Islamic State (Isis) and Turkey views as a subversive threat.
Tensions over the Kurds, which have tested relations between two nominal allies for the past three years, spiked over the weekend, when Washington announced it would raise a border force from the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Defence Force, which led the battle against Isis in north-east Syria.
Ankara views the Syrian Kurds as an extension of the Turkish Kurdish PKK, with whom it has fought a four decade insurgency inside its borders. It has vowed not to allow Kurdish groups to dominate its border with Syria.
-snip-
Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/16/turkish-attack-on-us-backed-kurds-in-syria-believed-imminent
2 replies
= new reply since forum marked as read
= new reply since forum marked as read
Syrian Kurdish fighters previously armed by the United States are no longer part of the battle against ISIL and the US-led coalition doesn't support them, a US military official said on Tuesday.
The comments were the first indication by American officials that US-led forces may not intervene if Turkey follows through with a promised cross-border military operation to wipe out the group known as YPG, which controls the Afrin region along Turkey's southern border.
The comments - reported by Turkey's Anadolu news agency - came after senior Turkish officials threatened an imminent attack against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).
...
"We don't consider them as part of our 'Defeat ISIS' operations, which is what we are doing there and we do not support them. We are not involved with them at all," Rankine-Galloway told the news agency.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/01/military-support-kurdish-ypg-afrin-180116202955100.html
The comments were the first indication by American officials that US-led forces may not intervene if Turkey follows through with a promised cross-border military operation to wipe out the group known as YPG, which controls the Afrin region along Turkey's southern border.
The comments - reported by Turkey's Anadolu news agency - came after senior Turkish officials threatened an imminent attack against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).
...
"We don't consider them as part of our 'Defeat ISIS' operations, which is what we are doing there and we do not support them. We are not involved with them at all," Rankine-Galloway told the news agency.
http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/01/military-support-kurdish-ypg-afrin-180116202955100.html
Afrin is separated from Manbij and other SDF-controlled areas by a pocket of territory held by Turkish-backed rebels
If Afrin and Manbij were to fall, Turkish-backed forces would control a 200km (125-mile) continuous stretch of Syria's northern border west of the Euphrates
The YPG has not said how many fighters it has in the two areas, but Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency estimated that there were about 8,000 to 10,000 in Afrin.
It is also not clear if US military personnel are deployed around Manbij, as they were last year.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-42704542
If Afrin and Manbij were to fall, Turkish-backed forces would control a 200km (125-mile) continuous stretch of Syria's northern border west of the Euphrates
The YPG has not said how many fighters it has in the two areas, but Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency estimated that there were about 8,000 to 10,000 in Afrin.
It is also not clear if US military personnel are deployed around Manbij, as they were last year.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-42704542
