Turkey says it will launch new Syria offensive within days

ANKARA, Turkey— Turkey will launch a new military operation against U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters in Syria “within a few days,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday, a move likely to further strain ties between NATO allies Turkey and the United States.

In recent months, Turkey has shelled Kurdish positions across the border in Syria, east of the Euphrates River, and has threatened to drive out the Syrian Kurdish militia known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG.

The YPG is the main component of a Kurdish-led militia in Syria that rolled back the Islamic State group with the help of the U.S.led coalition. Ankara views YPG fighters as terrorists because of their links to the Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey.

U.S. troops are deployed with the Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria, in part to prevent clashes with Turkey.