BALADI NEWS
Turkish and US armed forces conducted the seventh round of joint helicopter flights on Saturday for a planned safe zone east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria.
Two Turkish and two American helicopters took off from Sanliurfa, southeastern Turkey, where the two countries’ armed forces have a joint operations center, Anadolu Agency correspondents reported.
They flew to the Syrian side of the border. After an hour-long flight, the helicopters returned to the center.
The countries' armed forces had previously done six joint helicopter flights and two land patrols.
According to Turkey’s National Defence Ministry, the joint patrols were conducted as part of an agreement over the planned establishment of a safe zone in northern Syria.
On August 7, Turkish and US military officials agreed to set up a safe zone in northern Syria and develop a peace corridor to facilitate the movement of displaced Syrians who want to return home. They also agreed to establish a joint operations center.
The agreement also envisaged setting up necessary security measures to address Turkey's security concerns, including clearing the zone of the YPG group, which Turkey considers as an offshoot of the PKK terror group in Turkey.
The US has sometimes been allied with YPG in its fight against Daesh, but that was over Turkey’s objections.
Source: TRT World.