And we say: “no they did not”.
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Turkey has swept the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) and the Kurdish YPG militia from an area of northern Syria, but Syrian Kurdish forces have still not met a Turkish demand to withdraw to the east of the Euphrates river, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Friday.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim earlier said the group had squandered the chance for a political peace process, after it launched a series of bomb attacks following the collapse of a ceasefire with the state a year ago.
Once their evacuation to government-controlled areas is complete, the rebel gunmen in Moadamiyeh who refuse to hand over their weapons will leave, likely to rebel-held parts of northern Syria.
Erdogan said the reason of the operation is to secure the border region by eliminating terror organizations.
On Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis estimated IS only retained control of about 25 kilometers of the border, east of Al-Rai. He repeated his charge that the Syrian Kurds, who he says are allied with Kurdish separatist militants who have staged bomb attacks in Turkey, are “terrorists”.
A U.S. defence official in Washington, who requested anonymity, said that any continuing presence by the YPG in the area was “completely insignificant”.
Turkey has warned that it will continue bombarding the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia, which Ankara sees as a terrorist organisation linked to its own domestic separatist rebels, unless they moved east.
Washington, which backs the YPG, on Monday expressed alarm at Turkey s bombardments of the group and called on its two allies to remain focused on fighting IS.
Erdogan’s remarks appeared to be a response to comments by a USA defence official, who said on Monday that Kurdish forces had “all” moved east of the Euphrates.
During the operation, dubbed “Euphrates Shield”, Turkey has also carried out strikes against the YPG.
Syrian rebels backed by Turkey seized several villages from Islamic State near the town of al-Rai, from where the rebel groups launched a new operation against the jihadists earlier on Saturday, a rebel official said.
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The demonstrators were protesting the route of a five-kilometre wall being built by the Turks between Kobane and the Turkish town of Suruc.
