Erdogan: Washington is scheming against Turkey, Iran, Russia in Syria
Turkish soldier killed setting up military post in Syrian northwest • Death marks second attack in a week on Ankara’s ‘de-escalation zone’
ANKARA/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – The United States is working against the interests of Turkey, Iran and maybe Russia in northern Syria, where it is sending in military supplies to an area controlled by Kurdish-dominated forces, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.
“If the United States says they are sending 5,000 trucks and 2,000 cargo planes of weapons for the fight against Daesh [ISIS], we don’t believe this,” Erdogan told members of his ruling AK Party in parliament.
“It means you have calculations against Turkey and Iran, and maybe Russia,” he said, repeating a call for US troops to withdraw from the Syrian town of Manbij.
In northwest Syria, a Turkish soldier was killed in a rocket and mortar attack as Turkish forces were setting up a military post in the largest remaining stronghold of opposition to President Bashar Assad, Turkey’s military said on Tuesday.
It was the second attack in a week on Turkish soldiers trying to establish a position near the front line between rebels and pro-Syrian government forces, under a deal with Russia and Iran meant to reduce fighting in the area.
That deal largely collapsed in December when the Syrian Army along with Iran-backed militias and heavy Russian air power began a major offensive to take territory in Idlib province and surrounding areas.
Turkey said five soldiers were also wounded in Monday night’s attack. A civilian member of the Turkish contingent was also wounded, according to the military.
The army began setting up the outpost on Monday southwest of Aleppo city, the deepest position Turkey has established so far inside northwestern Syria under the agreement with Moscow and Tehran aimed at “de-escalating” the violence.
Turkey, which supported rebels trying to overthrow Assad, has worked with Assad’s main international backers Russia and Iran in recent months to try to stem some of the bloodshed in Syria’s nearly seven-year-old civil war.
But all three countries remain deeply involved in the conflict, and stark divisions remain.
Erdogan said the military operations in Afrin and Idlib would continue, and repeated Turkey’s demand for US forces to pull back from the town of Manbij where they are stationed alongside Kurdish-led forces.
“We will come to Manbij to deliver the land to its true owners,” Erdogan said in parliament, referring to Arab occupants of Manbij who say they were driven out of the town by the Kurdish YPG-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said the observation post being established by Turkey was near the village of al-Eis, which would place it less than 5 km. from territory held by Syrian government forces and its allies.
A week ago, a large Turkish military convoy heading for the same area withdrew after it was hit by a car bomb that killed one person.