{"id":25486,"date":"2018-12-14T00:23:30","date_gmt":"2018-12-14T00:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=25486"},"modified":"2018-12-14T00:23:30","modified_gmt":"2018-12-14T00:23:30","slug":"pentagon-cautions-turkey-over-new-operation-against-syria-kurds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=25486","title":{"rendered":"Pentagon cautions Turkey over new operation against Syria Kurds"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\nAny unilateral military action in northern Syria would be \u201cunacceptable,\u201d the Pentagon said Wednesday after Turkey announced it would launch an operation against a US-backed Kurdish militia.<\/p>\n

\nThe warning came after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would soon begin a mission targeting the Kurdish People\u2019s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers a \u201cterrorist\u201d group.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe will start an operation to free the east of the Euphrates from the separatist terrorist organization in the next few days,\u201d Erdogan said during a speech in Ankara, referring to territory held by the Kurdish People\u2019s Protection Units (YPG).<\/p>\n

\nAmerican forces have worked closely with the YPG under the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance, which has played a key role in the war against the Daesh extremist group<\/p>\n

\nThe Pentagon has repeatedly warned that any fighting between the Turks and the SDF is a dangerous distraction from the core US mission in Syria of fighting Daesh.<\/p>\n

\nPentagon spokesman Commander Sean Robertson said any unilateral military action in northeast Syria would be a \u201cgrave concern,\u201d as it could potentially jeopardize US troops working with the SDF in the region.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe would find any such actions unacceptable,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\nTurkey says the YPG is a \u201cterrorist offshoot\u201d of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984.<\/p>\n

\nPKK is blacklisted as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe target is never American soldiers but terrorist organization members active in the region,\u201d Erdogan told the audience at a defense industry summit.<\/p>\n

\nFlashpoint<\/strong><\/p>\n

\nAmerican forces are with the SDF east of the Euphrates as well as in the flashpoint city of Manbij, which is west of the river.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cWe should not and cannot allow Daesh to breathe at this critical point or we will jeopardize the significant gains we have made alongside our coalition partners and risk allowing Daesh to resurge,\u201d Robertson said.<\/p>\n

\nThe YPG also said a Turkish offensive would be to the benefit of Daesh.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cThe (Turkish) threats coincide with the advance of our forces against the terrorists, this time with the entrance into the town of Hajjin,\u201d YPG spokesman Nuri Mahmud said.<\/p>\n

\nThe SDF launched an offensive on September 10 to expel IS from the Hajjin pocket, on the eastern bank of the Euphrates River close to the Iraqi border.<\/p>\n

\n\u201cAny attack on the north of Syria will have a direct impact on the battle of Hajjin. The forces who are fighting (there) will return to defend their areas and their families,\u201d Mahmud said.<\/p>\n

\nWashington\u2019s relationship with the YPG, seen as a key ally, is one of the main sources of tensions between the United States and NATO member Turkey.<\/p>\n

\nAnkara has repeatedly lambasted Washington for providing military support to the Kurdish militia.<\/p>\n

\nErdogan has previously threatened to attack areas held by the YPG. In a bid to avoid any clash, the NATO allies agreed a \u201croadmap\u201d for Manbij in June.<\/p>\n

\nErdogan\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\nErdogan claimed Turkey was not being protected from terrorists but \u201cterrorists were being protected\u201d from possible action by Turkey.<\/p>\n

\nElizabeth Teoman, analyst at the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), said Erdogan may be threatening the attacks \u201cto compel a change in US policy regarding the US observation posts along the Syrian-Turkish border.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\nShe added that \u201cTurkey may attempt to target YPG rear areas without a definitive US presence in the form of an observation posts.\u201d<\/p>\n

\nTurkey 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.<\/p>\n

\nThen in January 2018, Turkish military forces backed Syrian rebels to clear the YPG from its northwestern enclave of Afrin.<\/p>\n

\nIn March, the operation was completed with the capture of Afrin city.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Any unilateral military action in northern Syria would be \u201cunacceptable,\u201d the Pentagon said Wednesday after Turkey announced it would launch an operation against a US-backed Kurdish militia. The warning came after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would soon begin a mission targeting the Kurdish People\u2019s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers a \u201cterrorist\u201d group.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":25487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=25486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/25487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=25486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=25486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=25486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}