When asked if ongoing United States cooperation with the Kurds would be a stumbling block, Erdogan said he didn’t consider it to be a problem, pointing to Turkey’s latest operation (Euphrates Shield), which has gone smoothly so far.
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His comments came two weeks after Turkey launched an ambitious operation inside Syria, sending tanks and special forces to back up Syrian opposition fighters and cleanse its frontier from IS jihadists and Kurdish militia.
Turkish military sources said the Afrin incident began when border guards came under machine-gun fire from unknown forces inside Syria.
ISTANBUL (AP) Three Turkish soldiers were killed and four were wounded in a missile attack Tuesday by the Islamic State group in northern Syria the first Turkish casualties caused by the militants in Turkey’s two-week-old incursion into Syria.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin have agreed to continue efforts to achieve a truce in Syria’s Aleppo, a statement said.
“Obama wants to do some things jointly concerning Raqqa”, Erdogan said. “We wouldn’t consider anything before that as formal passage”, a spokesman at the governor’s office for Gaziantep province, which lies across the border from Jarabulus, said.
Turkey has said it cleared militants from a 90-km (55-mile) stretch of Syrian territory and has pushed south.
The Turkish leader adds that he said Turkish and us military officials could meet to discuss the issue.
The military said two Turkey-backed Syrian rebels were killed and two wounded rebels were also evacuated.
Yet it remains unclear if the Syrian rebels backed by Turkey will proceed further south to take Al-Bab from IS jihadists and then Raqa itself, or to what extent the operation has USA support. “They saved us from DAESH”, he said.
Turkey launched an unprecedented operation inside Syria on August 24.
Any Turkish role would be have to be determined in further talks, he said.
Turkey does not have the option of taking a step back on Syria or else terror groups will fill in the gap, Erdoğan added. Nonetheless, in an exclusive interview to The Independent on September 3, a senior Kurdish official said they are ready to fight “to the death”.
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The HNC, an umbrella body representing more than 30 political and military forces, are seeking to wrestle power from al-Assad and unveiled a 25-page plan detailing a transition to democratic and religious pluralism in the country.
