Turkey urges US to end support for Syrian Kurd YPG

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Turkey urged the United States on Thursday to halt its support for Kurdish YPG fighters or risk confronting Turkish forces on the ground in Syria, some of Ankara's strongest comments yet about a potential clash with its NATO ally.

The remarks, from the spokesman for President Tayyip Erdogan's government, underscored the growing bilateral tensions, six days after Turkey launched its air and ground operation, "Olive Branch", in Syria's northwestern Afrin region.

US: Turkey's operation in Afrin was not helpful

In Washington, the Pentagon said that it carefully tracked weapons provided to the YPG and would continue discussions with Turkey.

"We carefully track those weapons that are provided to them, we ensure that they, to the maximum extent possible, don't fall into the wrong hands and we're continuing discussions with the Turks on this issue," Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie, Pentagon joint staff director, told reporters.

McKenzie said Turkey's operation into Afrin was not helpful and was taking focus away from fighting ISIL.

Turkey: Urging US to halt support for terrorist groups

Turkey's targeting of the YPG, which it views as a security threat, has opened a new front in Syria's multi-sided civil war. The Syrian Kurdish group is a main part of a US-backed rebel alliance that has inflicted recent defeats on ISIL militants.

Turkish army tanks are stationed in a field near the Syrian border at Hassa, in Hatay province on January 25, 2018, as part of the operation "Olive Branch," launched a few days ago. /VCG Photo‍

Any push by Turkish forces towards Manbij, part of a Kurdish-held territory some 100 km (60 miles) east of Afrin, could threaten US efforts in northeast Syria and bring them into direct confrontation with US troops deployed there.

"Those who support the terrorist organization will become a target in this battle," Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said.

"The United States needs to review its solders and elements giving support to terrorists on the ground in such a way as to avoid a confrontation with Turkey," Bozdag, who also acts as the government's spokesman, told broadcaster A Haber.

Kurdish authorities: Asking help from Assad's government

Kurdish authorities in Syria's Afrin district called on Thursday for Bashar al-Assad's government to send troops to help defend them from a six-day-old Turkish assault, turning for help to the very government from which they have sought autonomy.

The statement posted on the website of the Afrin authorities underscores the increasingly complex theater of war in northern Syria, where Turkey's fight against a Kurdish militia threatens to scramble alliances in a seven-year-old conflict.

"We call on the Syrian state to carry out its sovereign obligations towards Afrin and protect its borders with Turkey from attacks of the Turkish occupier ... and deploy its Syrian armed forces to secure the borders of the Afrin area," the statement said.

The Turkish air and ground offensive to crush Kurdish YPG fighters in the Afrin district of northern Syria has opened a new front in a civil war which has seen shifting alliances between factions on the ground and their foreign sponsors.

The US has relied on the YPG as a vital ground component of its war against ISIL, and has backed the group in other Kurdish-run regions in northern Syria along the border with Turkey. US special forces troops are on the ground in areas held by the YPG and its allies, although not in Afrin.

US support for the YPG has infuriated Washington's NATO ally Turkey, which sees the YPG as a terrorist group and has vowed to crush it.

Source(s): Reuters