Will extend presence beyond northeastern Syria: Erdogan
ISTANBUL: Turkey will set up a dozen observation posts across northeast Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday, insisting that a planned “safe zone” will extend much farther than US officials said was covered under a fragile ceasefire deal.
Less than 24 hours after he agreed the five-day truce to allow Kurdish forces time to pull back from Turkey’s cross-border assault, Erdogan underlined Ankara’s ambition to establish a presence along 300 miles of territory inside Syria.
On the border itself shelling could be heard near the Syrian town of Ras al-Ayn on Friday morning despite Thursday’s deal, and a spokesman for the Kurdishled forces said Turkey was violating the ceasefire, hitting civilian targets in the town.
But Reuters journalists at the border said the bombardment subsided around mid-morning and a US official said most of the fighting had stopped, although it would “take time for things to completely quiet down”.
US President Donald Trump said he had spoken with Erdogan who had told him there had been some “minor” sniper and mortar fire in northeastern Syria despite the truce, but that it had been quickly eliminated.
“He very much wants the ceasefire, or pause, to work,” Trump said in a post on Twitter. “Likewise, the Kurds want it, and the ultimate solution, to happen.”
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs described the situation as “reportedly calm in most areas, with the exception of Ras al-Ayn, where shelling continued to be reported,” UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.