The Turkish leader issued a message on Monday saying Ankara was determined to take all steps necessary both inside Turkey and overseas to protect Turkish citizens.
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Washington backs the Kurdish-aligned SDF and YPG, seeing them as the most reliable and effective ally in the fight against Islamic State in Syria.
“We’ve called on both sides to not fight with one another, to continue to focus the fight on ISIL”, said Carter.
Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said the clashes were of “deep concern”, adding that they were not coordinated with USA forces, “and we do not support them”.
The YPG is the militant wing of the PYD, which is considered by Turkey to be the Syrian extension of the PKK, which is recognised as a terrorist organisation by Turkey, the US, EU, and NATO.
The Kurdish announcement came hours after the warning by Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu – and is unlikely to satisfy Ankara.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the Turkey-backed rebels have captured 21 towns and villages near Jarablus from the Syria Democratic Forces.
The militias have said no Kurdish forces are in the area. It puts Washington in the hard spot of having to choose between two allies, and it is likely to divert resources from the fight against IS.
Turkish-backed forces pushed deeper into northern Syria on Monday and drew a rebuke from North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally the United States, which said it was concerned the battle for territory had shifted away from targeting Islamic State.
He says the US doesn’t support reported Turkish airstrikes and artillery shelling of USA -backed Syrian Kurdish fighters – or Kurdish attacks on Turkish troops – in areas where Islamic State fighters no longer are operating.
USA -backed Kurdish forces in northern Syria have “all” moved east of the Euphrates River, a US defense official said Monday, an action Washington hopes will reduce conflict between two partner forces.
This year, more than 20 people have died in Kilis, with the mortar shells fired from ISIS-held territory.
The U.S. and Turkey have been at odds since a July 15 failed military coup, which the Turkish president has blamed on Fethullah Gulen, an Islamic cleric and former Erdogan ally now living in exile in Pennsylvania. The U.S. State Department said on Monday it continues to warn U.S. citizens of an increased threat from terrorist groups throughout Turkey.
Turkey and the U.S. have some serious differences over issues surrounding northern Syria.
“Turkey can not sit and watch an attack from Syria”.
“If that happens, it means Syria has been divided”, he added, quoted by NTV television.
“Uncoordinated actions like this really aren’t getting us further along” to defeating ISIS, he said.
The move is unlikely to be accepted by Turkey, since Ankara wants the rebels to withdraw completely east of the Euphrates.
The Turkish military said Sunday that its airstrikes in northern Syria killed 25 Kurdish militants and denied that civilians had also been killed.
Since then, more than 600 security personnel, including troops, police officers and village guards, have been martyred and over 7,000 PKK terrorists killed or “neutralized” in operations across Turkey and northern Iraq. A Turkish soldier was killed Saturday by a Kurdish rocket attack, the first such fatality in Turkey’s ground offensive.
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The Observatory also reported clashes Monday between the rebels and IS fighters on the western edge of Jarablus.
