President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that the Turkish-backed in incursion in northern Syria was going successfully and that a 400 square-km area had been cleared of the Islamic State and the US-backed Kurdish YPG militia force. “More than 400 square kilometers had been cleared from terrorist organizations such as Da’esh, YPG (Kurdish) and PYD (Kurdish Women’s militia). This victory that was achieved in such a short period has shown that the Free Syrian Army can fight against Da’esh,” said the President.
Turkey, which is battling a decades-long Kurdish insurgency at home, fears Kurdish-aligned forces aims to capture areas previously held by Islamic State, giving them control of an unbroken swathe of territory running along the Turkish border. Since the start of the campaign, the Turkish army has said it has bombarded dozens of targets that it says were held by the Kurdish YPG militia, a powerful force in the US-backed Syria Democratic Forces. The YPG says its forces withdrew from the area long before Turkey’s assault.
Washington has criticized the fighting between Turkish and Kurdish forces, urging both sides to focus the fighting against the Islamic State. Even though US officials said the Kurds adhered to a Turkish demand to cross the Euphrates river away from the Turkish border, Erdogan said they were lies and that Ankara will continue to target the Kurdish militias.
“Right now, people (The United States) say they (YPG militants) crossed east of the Euphrates river. We tell them: ‘No, they haven’t’. Let me say this, the proof that they crossed over the east of the Euphrates river adheres to our confirmation. We will not believe that YPG or PYD crossed to the east of the Euphrates by listening to someone’s statements in the United States or anywhere else,” stressed the Turkish leader.