Baladi News
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday warned he will launch a new operation in Syria within days against the U.S.-led Coalition backed People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia that Ankara considers a terrorist group.
“We have made our warnings and completed our preparations,” Erdogan said in Ankara. He accused the US of setting up observation posts in the area “not to protect our country from terrorists but to protect them from us.”
Erdogan's comments came a day after the Pentagon announced the setting up of US observation posts on the northeast Syria border region intended to prevent altercations between the Turkish army and the YPG, despite calls from Ankara not to go ahead with the move.
Ankara and Washington have long been at odds over Syria, where the United States has backed the YPG Kurdish militia in the fight against Islamic State insurgents. Turkey says the YPG is a terrorist organisation and an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency against the state in southeastern Turkey for 34 years.
It's noteworthy that Turkey has previously launched two operations in northern Syria. The first offensive began in August 2016 with Turkish forces supporting Syrian opposition fighters against IS and was completed by March 2017.
The second was in January 2018, where Turkish military forces backed Syrian rebels to clear the YPG from its northwestern enclave of Afrin, and it was completed with the capture of Afrin city.