The United States has up to 2,000 troops stationed in Manbij, raising fears of a confrontation between the two North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies.
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Birusk Hasaka, a spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia in Afrin, told Reuters that Turkish bombardment hit a village in the northwest of the region, near the Turkish border.
Turkey has accused the USA of providing massive amounts of heavy arms to the YPG, which is a U.S. ally in the fight against the “Islamic State” (IS) in Syria, and called on Washington to take them back.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson dined for three hours Thursday night with Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and diplomats from both countries labored into the early hours of Friday morning in hopes of announcing at least a few specific measures.
“Turkey and the US reached understanding to normalize relations, there are steps to be taken, Turkey and USA chose to form new mechanisms to deal with issues”, which are hampering ties, told reporters Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Friday during a joint press conference.
“We talked here yesterday for an extended period, we’re coming together on what we can do together”, said Mattis. “So that will be a topic of discussion in terms of how we go forward to ensure Manbij remains within our control because of its strategic importance”.
“We find ourselves at a bit of a crisis point in the relationship”, Tillerson said.
“Turkey is a part of the D-ISIS Coalition, in addition [to] a North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally, so we continue our operations out of there”. “We were either going to correct this or it was going to take a turn for the worse”. “From Tel Abyad? And so on”. For the first time in seven years since the Syrian civil war broke out, armed opponents to Bashar Al-Assad downed a Russian Sukhoi Su-25 jet, ruling in the possibility that the aircraft was launched by the Free Syrian Army supported by Turkey. In recent months, the struggle has become increasingly internationalised, as the US-Turkish dispute illustrates.
That announcement directly precipitated Turkey’s military offensive against Kurdish militias in the enclave of Afrin in western Syria, Altun wrote. Codenamed Olive Branch, the goal of the operation is to strike a blow against the US-backed People’s Protection Units (YPG) which Ankara regards as an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that was branded as a terrorist organization by Turkey.
Mr Erdogan was enraged when the United States announced last month that it planned to support a “border force” for Kurdish-run areas. The two sides said the top priority of the working group established Friday will be addressing Manbij, a town in northern Syria held by the YPG with the backing of American forces.
Last week, a commander of the US-led coalition visited a border post in Manbij and warned Turkey it would hit back hard against any attacks.
These differences have become the ultimate test of their relationship.The real problem in current Turkish-US relations is the lack of trust based on American moves in Syria.
Turkish officials alleged the staff members had ties to cleric Fethullah Gulen, whom Ankara accuses of being responsible for a deadly failed coup in 2016.
Russian Federation and Syria denied the accusations, with government statements in Syria accusing Washington of creating pretexts to strike Syria.
USA officials say Washington recognizes Turkey’s legitimate security concerns about Kurdish militants but that they must show restraint in the volatile region.
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Akdağ said the camps catering to civilian needs will be similar to those which were built after Operation Euphrates Shield.
