Turkey lashes out at Kurdish force

Calls U.S.-backed border troops an ‘army of terror’

• Turkey’s president on Monday denounced U.S. plans to form a 30,000-strong Kurdishled border security force in Syria, vowing to “drown this army of terror before it is born.”

Recep Tayyip Erdogan also warned U.S. troops against coming between Turkish troops and Kurdish forces, which Ankara views as an extension of Turkey’s own Kurdish insurgency.

Turkey has been threatening to launch a new military operation against the main Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the People’s Defence Units, or YPG, in the Kurdish-held Afrin enclave in northern Syria. The YPG is the backbone of a Syrian force that drove the Islamic State from much of northern and eastern Syria with the help of U.S.-led airstrikes.

“The United States has admitted that it has created a terrorist force along our country’s border. Our duty is to drown this army of terror before it is born,” Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara.

The U.S.-led coalition declined to comment.

“Turkey is a valued member of a 74-member Coalition and a NATO partner, sharing our mission to ensure the lasting defeat of (IS) in Iraq and Syria. It would be inappropriate for us to comment on Mr. Erdogan’s remarks,” the coalition said.

The coalition said the new force, expected to reach 30,000 in the next several years, is a key element of its strategy in Syria to prevent the resurgence of the IS group in Syria.

The core of the force is to be made up of fighters from the existing Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the coalition’s ally in the fight against IS. Some 230 cadets have already been recruited to the new border force, according to the coalition. The force is expected to be deployed along the borders of the SDF-held areas and Iraq and Turkey.

Turkey sent troops into Syria in 2016 to prevent Syrian Kurdish fighters from forming a contiguous entity along its border. It has also supported rival Syrian rebels and independently fought to drive IS from parts of Syria.

Tensions with Washington have repeatedly erupted over its support of the SDF, prompting U.S. troops to deploy in northeast Syria to prevent clashes between the Kurdish forces and Turkeybacked fighters.

In recent days, Turkey said it would soon launch a new operation in Afrin and sent reinforcements to the border. On Monday, Erdogan said preparations for the military assault on Afrin “are complete,” adding an operation could start any moment.