Syria – Turkey – Conflict
Mon Aug 29, 2016 20:32:34
Turkey warned Monday it would carry out more strikes on a Syrian Kurdish militia if it failed to retreat beyond the Euphrates River, as Washington condemned their weekend clashes as “unacceptable.”
Turkish forces pressed on with a two-pronged operation inside Syria against Islamic State (ISIS / Daesh / ISIL / IS) terrorists and the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), shelling over a dozen targets.
But strikes against the YPG are hugely sensitive as the Kurdish group — seen as a terror group by Ankara — is allied with Turkey’s NATO partner, the United States, in the fight against ISIS in Syria.
Ankara said it had killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” in strikes on YPG positions on Sunday, a day after a Turkish soldier died in a rocket attack allegedly by the militia.
The Pentagon called the clashes “unacceptable” and urged an immediate de-escalation.
Turkey’s operation aims to push the YPG back across the Euphrates River to prevent it joining up the region east of the river already under its control with a Kurdish-held area to the west.
S/SH 11
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