Men inspect a damaged site after double airstrikes on the rebel held Bab al-Nairab neighborhood of Aleppo, Syria, August 27, 2016.
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Turkey warned Monday it would carry out more strikes on a US-backed Kurdish militia in Syria if it fails to retreat, as Washington said President Barack Obama will meet his Turkish counterpart over the weekend.
Ankara has said it killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” in strikes on YPG positions on Sunday – meaning the two US-backed partner forces were fighting each other.
Shervan Derwish, a spokesman for the local military council, which is aligned with the Kurds, denied reports that the YPG was sending reinforcements to the town to repel any attacks from Turkey or its proxies.
“We want to make clear that we find these clashes – in areas where ISIL is not located – unacceptable and a source of deep concern”, said Brett McGurk, US special envoy for the fight against Islamic State.
“We have a broad and active agenda”, said Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser.
Turkey’s state-run news agency says three rockets fired from Syria have hit a Turkish border town, wounding five children between 8 years and 12 years of age.
It has also raised questions over whether Turkey will attempt to thwart any more major advances by the SDF, just weeks after the Pentagon hailed the group’s victory against Islamic State in the town of Manbij, about 30 km (20 miles) south of Turkey’s border.
The officials are also concerned that the friction with Turkey could affect operations out of the US air base at Incirlik in southeastern Turkey, which has been vital to the USA effort to provide close-air support for the USA -backed rebel groups inside Syria in the fight against ISIS.
The Pentagon is calling on Turkey and its Syrian rebel allies to stop fighting America’s Syrian Kurdish allies in northern Syrian because it is taking attention away from the fight against ISIS.
Carter called for Turkey to “stay focused” on ISIS and not the Kurdish forces.
Carter on Monday described the river as a natural barrier that would separate Turkey and the YPG.
“The YPG has to immediately cross east of the Euphrates River as they promised the United States and as they announced they would“, Cavusoglu said, as cited by AP.
There was more heavy fighting Monday along the Turkey-Syriaborder, but two USA allies seem more intent on fighting each other than ISIS. That, Ankara fears, could embolden Kurdish aspirations for self-determination in Turkey.
“The enemy of my enemy is still my enemy”, Misztal said.
Carter says some of the SDF fighters are affiliated with the so-called YPG, a Kurdish organization that Turkey considers a terrorist group.
Turkey is host to important US and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation military facilities. “They have fought hard and sacrificed to try and rid Syria of this hateful group”.
It will be the first time the two have met since the failed coup in Turkey, which occurred in July.
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President Tayyip Erdogan is expected to visit the site of that wedding attack in Gaziantep, in southeastern Turkey, to pay his respects to families of the victims later on Sunday.
