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Turkey: Ground Troops in Syria ‘Not on Agenda’

A news agency close to the Islamic State group said the extremist group’s fighters had cut the road.

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Khanaser lies along the government’s only access route to Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and once commercial center.

“Turkey is aware of these games aiming to make Turkey a neighbor with a terror structure and will not allow it”, Davutoglu said.

The militant group which claimed the attack, the Kurdish Freedom Falcons (TAK), had identified the bomber as a Turkish Kurd from Van named Abdulbaki Somer with the nom-de-guerre Zinar Raperin. Washington’s strategy in this regard consists in spearheading a broader regional war by inciting Turkey, Saudi Arabia as well as Israel to do the “dirty work for us”.

Fearing the ambitions of the PYD and its People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia, Ankara has been keen to play up the links between the Syrian Kurdish fighters and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) which has waged a decades-long insurgency against the Turkish state.

The United States and Russian Federation have agreed on a plan for a cease-fire in Syria starting Saturday that would exclude attacks on the Islamic State group and al-Qaida’s local affiliate.

A Foreign Ministry statement on Tuesday says government forces will have the right to respond to any violation carried out by insurgents.

A spokesman for a Saudi-backed alliance of Syrian opposition and rebel factions says the group has “major concerns” that Russian Federation and the Syrian government will continue to strike at mainstream rebels under the pretext of hitting “terrorist groups” during the truce that is to go into effect later this week.

Syria has remained locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011, when the regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests with unexpected ferocity.

The minister reiterated Turkey’s position that Syrian President Bashar Assad should step down, saying “our wish is that those who have committed crimes against their people are not given a say over Syria’s future”. Talks are now scheduled to resume on February 25.

Cavusoglu’s remarks come as Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal said on Sunday that the US-led airstrikes in Syria have been ineffective and a ground intervention was needed in the war-torn Arab country.

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The HNC says “acceptance of the truce is conditional” to the Syrian government ending its siege of 18 rebel-held areas, releasing detainees and the cessation of aerial and artillery bombardment.

Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu speaks during a news briefing in Tbilisi Georgia