Turkey vows to destroy U.S.-backed Kurdish force

BEIRUT — Turkey’s president on Monday denounced U.S. plans to form a 30,000strong Kurdish-led border security force in Syria, vowing to “drown this army of terror before it is born,” as Russia and Syria also rejected the idea.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also warned U.S. troops against coming between Turkish soldiers 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 Defense 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 group from much of northern and eastern Syria with the help of U.S.-led air strikes.

Russia also has warned that the nascent U.S. force threatens to fuel tensions around Afrin.

“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 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 Islamic State group in Syria.

“A strong border security force will prohibit (IS) freedom of movement and deny the transportation of illicit materials,” the coalition said in a statement to the Associated Press. “This will enable the Syrian people to establish effective local, representative governance and reclaim their land.”

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.