Turkey threatening new incursion into Syria

ISTANBUL — The Turkish president is threatening to mount a new incursion into northern Syria, accusing the United States of failing to tackle the security threats Turkey faces in the region.

Turkish commando units were deploying Friday to the border with northeastern Syria, the Turkish news media reported, raising the possibility of an inadvertent confrontation with U.S. troops operating in the same area.

NATO allies, Turkey and the United States both oppose Syrian President Bashar Assad. But they back rival local forces on the ground in Syria: Turkey supports the Free Syrian Army, a mainly Arab rebel force, while the United States is allied with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

In a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan expressed concerns Friday about the actions and presence of the Kurdish militia in northeastern Syria, the Turkish president’s office said. Erdogan has repeatedly demanded that U.S. forces stop supporting the Syrian Kurdish fighters.

“If there is a threat against us there, which there is, the response to this threat will be immediate,” Erdogan said Friday in a speech to representatives of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation in Istanbul. “Either they will demolish those terror groups or we will,” he added in a reference to the United States and its Kurdish allies.

A Pentagon spokesman, Cmdr. Sean Robertson, has warned that any unilateral military action in Syria’s northeast would be unacceptable

During Syria’s nearly eight-year conflict, Kurds have carved out an autonomous territory in the country’s north along the Turkish border.

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who considers this Kurdish-controlled territory hostile to Turkey, has repeatedly threatened military action against the mainly Kurdish units in northeastern Syria. and a source of grave concern, “particularly as U.S. personnel may be present or in the vicinity.”

In addition to some 2,000 military personnel, a team of up to 20 American civilians helps run stabilization programs in northeastern Syria, working to restart utilities and clear rubble in areas captured from the Islamic State.

Turkey, which has been fighting the separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in Turkey for three decades, has accused the United States of bolstering the group by arming and training its Syrian affiliate, the YPG, which forms the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces. The United States considers the PKK a terrorist group, but says the YPG is the force in Syria most capable of fighting the Islamic State.

U.S. Special Operations forces are working with the Syrian Democratic Forces to combat remnants of the Islamic State in eastern Syria. Even as Turkey was threatening military action, the Syrian Democratic Forces announced that its fighters had taken control of Hajin, the last town in Syria held by the Islamic State.

Mostapha Bali, a spokesman for the Syrian Democratic Forces, said the group would resist any Turkish intervention, which he said would force it to halt the fight in Hajin.

“We will retaliate if attacked,” he said, adding, “We won’t give up to the Turkish. We hope the Turks will stop their threats, but if they decide to commit foolishness and continue their offensive, the battle in Hajin will definitely stop.”

That would give ISIS “more freedom to redeploy and expand,” he said.

During Syria’s nearly eightyear conflict, Kurds have carved out an autonomous territory in the country’s north along the Turkish border. Erdogan, who considers this Kurdish-controlled territory hostile to Turkey, has repeatedly threatened military action against the mainly Kurdish units in northeastern Syria.

Erdogan first announced the imminent operation Wednesday. “We will start our incursion to save east of the Euphrates from the separatist terror group within days,” he said.

But he assured the United States that its troops would never be a target. And in their phone call Friday, the Turkish and U.S. leaders agreed on the need for more effective cooperation on Syria, the Turkish president’s office said.

A Turkish commando unit with 50 trucks was heading to the southeastern Turkish town of Sanliurfa on Friday, Turkish news agencies reported. Troops arrived in Akcakale, a Turkish town on the Syrian border, residents reached by telephone said.

Turkey began the operation with airstrikes Thursday against PKK bases in northern Iraq, Erdogan said.