BALADI NEWS
Turkey’s president told military cadets on Wednesday that they could soon expect a new counter-terrorist operation across the border into northern Syria.
“You will soon clear Manbij and east of the Euphrates River of terrorist groups," Recep Tayyip Erdogan told cadets at the National Defense University in the Turkish capital Ankara.
The Turkish army is "the greatest power" against those who want to besiege the country via terrorist groups, he said, in his address after a fast-breaking meal for the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
He added that Turkish soldiers made history with two previous successful counter-terrorist operations in Syria since 2016, Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch.
A mission east of the Euphrates River, which Erdogan has been suggesting for months, would- like its predecessors- be meant to eradicate the presence of YPG- the Syrian offshoot of the illegal PKK- and ISIL near Turkey's borders.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) backed by the US-led Coalitin controls the city of Manbij in Aleppo's countryside and the region east of Euphrates.
Turkey considers the SDF as a terrorsit group because the PKK-affiliated people's protection Units (YPG) leads the Syrian Democratic Forces.
Source: Anadolu Agency.