Turkey’s Syria operations not helpful: Pentagon
The Pentagon says Turkey’s military operations in the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin are not helpful and threaten to damage the ongoing fight against Islamic State militants in Syria.
Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. says “the degree to which focus is taken off the reason we’re in Syria, which is to go after ISIS, is the degree to which it damages the overall effort.”
He added that it “is not helpful to have these operations go on. We recognize that. And we’re working with the Turks to try and minimize it.”
He said that so far the U.S. is not yet seeing Syrian Democratic Forces splitting away from the fight against IS in the Euphrates River Valley and go to Afrin. But he said the U.S. is watching that very closely and will try to prevent it.
McKenzie says U.S. military commanders continue to talk with Turkey about the establishment of some type of safe zone along the border. Speaking during a Pentagon briefing, he said it’s “simply an idea floating around right now” and there has been no decision yet.
Asked about Turkey’s assertions that its troops will move on toward the town of Manbij, further from Afrin, McKenzie said the U.S. is clearly tracking movement by Turkey but downplayed the chances of American forces being threatened there.
He said the U.S. and Turkey co-ordinate closely, including on the whereabouts of U.S. forces in the region. Still, he noted that U.S. troops will defend themselves if necessary.
Dana White, chief spokeswoman for the Pentagon, said she is aware of news reports that Turkey has asked the U.S. military to leave Manbij, but is not aware of any direct conversations about it. At this point, she said, she’s not aware of any changes in the location of U.S. troops there.
Meanwhile, NATO’s chief is urging Turkey to limit its use of force in northern Syria where its troops are battling a Kurdish militia that has been a top U.S. ally in the fight against the Islamic State group.
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday that he had discussed developments in the region with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other NATO allies.
Stoltenberg noted that Turkey is an ally “that suffers the most from terrorism” and said that “all nations have the right to defend themselves, but this has to be done in a proportionate and measured way.”
The United States has by far the biggest defence budget of any of NATO’s 29 allies and wields most political influence, while Turkey has one of the alliance’s biggest armies.
Tensions between them are an embarrassment for NATO, but Stoltenberg has refrained from criticizing either country and suggests it is a bilateral issue because the alliance has no troops on the ground in Syria.
Turkish officials say President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has travelled to Turkey’s border with Syria, where he is being briefed on Turkey’s military offensive against the Syrian Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin.
Officials from Erdogan’s office said Thursday the Turkish leader is visiting the command centre overseeing the offensive, codenamed “Olive Branch,” in Hatay province.