Turkey to launch new Syria offensive within days, warns Erdogan

Turkey will launch a new military operation against Usbacked Kurdish fighters in Syria “within a few days”, president Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.

Turkey has shelled Kurdish positions across the border in Syria, east of the Euphrates River, over recent months 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 that rolled back Islamic State withthehelpoftheus-ledcoalition. Ankara views the YPG as terrorists because of their links to the Kurdish insurgency inside Turkey.

US troops are deployed with the Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria, in part to prevent clashes with Turkey, and news of a new military operation is likely to further strain ties between the Nato allies.

“We will begin our operation to rescue the east of the Euphrates [River] from the separatist organisation within a few days,” Mr Erdogan said.

“Our target is not the American soldiers, it is terror organisations that are active in the region.”

He called on the United States not to allow “deep” disagreements over Syria policy to impede future co-operation between the two countries.

Turkey has been incensed by American support for the Kurdish-led forces. More recently, it has been frustrated by delays in the implementation of an agreement that was reached between Washington and Ankara that would effectively push the Kurdish militia out of the key northern Syrian town of Manbij, west of the Euphrates.

“They are not being honest, they are still not removing terrorists [from Manbij],” Mr Erdogan said. “Therefore we will do it.”

His statement, at an address to a defence industry meeting, follows US moves to set up observation posts in northern Syria, despite Turkey’s objections. Turkey said the observation posts are aimed at protecting the YPG.

“We know that the aim of the radar and observation posts set up by the United States [east of the Euphrates] is not to protect our country from terrorists, but to protect the terrorists from Turkey,” Mr Erdogan said.

Turkish troops have already driven back Syrian Kurdish forces in two cross-border operations west of the Euphrates, in 2016 and earlier this year.

The first began in the summer of 2016 and was an eight-month operation targeting IS and Kurdish forces that ended in March 2017. Earlier this year they launched a second operation against Kurdish militia in Afrin province. It lasted two months and the city was eventually cleared of the Kurds.