The Kurdish Popular Protection Units (YPG), which dominates the SDF, says its forces have withdrawn, and that the Turkish action against the group was a “pretext” for occupying Syria.
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The US has asked Turkey and Kurdish YPG militia to not to not fight with one another and instead us the fight on the ISIS.
“We’ve called on both sides to not fight with one another, to continue to focus the fight on ISIL”, said Carter.
Defense Secretary Ashton Carter, at a media appearance with the visiting defense minister of India, said that he would be meeting with the Turkish defense minister, Fikri Iski, next week in Europe.
On Monday, the SDF-backed Jarabulus Military Council said it would withdraw its fighters to the south of Sajur river, in order to protect civilians.
Abu Ibrahim, a Free Syrian Army commander, said he expects to fight the YPG.
The meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will be held Sunday on the sidelines of the Group of 20 summit, a major economic meeting, in China.
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.
At the start of Turkey’s now nearly week-long cross-border offensive, Turkish tanks, artillery and warplanes provided Syrian rebel allies the firepower to capture swiftly the Syrian frontier town of Jarablus from Islamic State militants.
Erdogan says: “The Jarablus operation was a reflection of our determination”.
From the state, however, the Turks have made clear that the YPG and PKK are some of the main targets of the operation. Daesh is the Arabic name for the Islamic State group.
Erdogan’s message was meant to mark Turkey’s Victory Day celebrations on Tuesday.
The clashes bolster Western concerns that Turkey’s military incursion into Syria is intended, in part, to target US -supported Kurdish forces known as the Kurdish People’s Protection Units, the YPG militia.
Clashes between the Turkish forces and the YPG have been criticized by the Pentagon, which called them “unacceptable”. The move was also aimed at halting advances by the Syrian Kurdish forces.
A group monitoring the tangled, five-year-old conflict in Syria said 41 people were killed by Turkish air strikes as Turkish forces pushed south on Sunday.
Syria’s government has condemned the Turkish incursion but has stayed out of the conflict.
But Turkish officials have openly stated that their goal in Syria is as much about ensuring Kurdish forces do not extend territory they already control along Turkey’s border, as it is about driving Daesh from its strongholds.
USA officials stressed that Turkey’s actions would be another distraction from the effort to defeat ISIS and could bolster the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who has been backed by Russian airstrikes since last September.
Hollande urged Russia to cooperate with the USA -led coalition and said he would invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to France in October, saying Russia should be “a player in negotiations, not a protagonist in the action”.
It said 6,700 food parcels, 200 delivery kits for pregnant women in addition to wheat flour, primary health care drugs and other medical items arrived Monday. If the whole region reaches the hands of the PYD, Syria will be divided.
“The YPG needs to retreat back to the east of Euphrates River, as they and the United States has previously pledged, and will be targeted if they fail to do so” Çavuşoğlu said during a press conference.
The Kurds are moving across the Euphrates, according to Carter.
“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.
They said they will withdraw in order for the rebels not to “have any justification to continue shelling civilians”.
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Since then, it said, more than 600 security personnel, including troops, police officers and village guards, have been killed and more than 7,000 PKK fighters have been killed during operations in northern Iraq and Turkey.
