Turkey says clears Islamic State, Kurdish force from part of northern Syria

[September 02, 2016]  By Ece Toksabay

ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey has swept Islamic State militants and Kurdish YPG militia from an area of northern Syria, but Syrian Kurdish forces have still not met a Turkish demand to withdraw to the east of the Euphrates river, President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

Turkey launched a cross-border offensive into Syria last week, saying it had a dual aim of driving away jihadists and ensuring Kurdish forces did not fill the void that was left by extending their control of territory along Turkey's border.

Turkey is concerned that Syrian Kurdish fighters could embolden Kurdish militants waging an insurgency on its soil.

The United States has been alarmed by Turkey's offensive against Kurdish forces, which Washington has backed in its bid to destroy Islamic State. U.S. officials have urged Ankara to focus its attacks on the Islamist militants instead.

Turkish warplanes renewed air strikes on Islamic State sites in northern Syria on Friday, CNN Turk reported, the latest attacks since Turkish-backed forces began the incursion on Aug. 24. Turkish officials have said Turkish-backed forces in recent days have struck westwards, in jihadist areas.

Erdogan told a news conference early on Friday that the operation dubbed "Euphrates Shield" had been successful in clearing Islamic State and Kurdish YPG from a 400-sq-km (150-square mile) area.

But he dismissed claims that the Kurdish YPG, which Ankara calls a terrorist group, had withdrawn to a Kurdish-controlled canton to the east of the Euphrates River. The YPG says it has done so and U.S. officials agree that is mostly the case.

"At the moment, they are saying the YPG has crossed," Erdogan said. "We are saying no they didn't. The proof depends on our own observation."

A member of Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), seen with a mural of the Islamic State in the background, stands guard in front of a building in the border town of Jarablus, Syria, August 31, 2016. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

The Kurdish YPG is part of a broader, U.S.-backed coalition in Syria called the Syrian Democratic Forces. Washington has supported the group in its battle against Islamic State but Ankara regards it as an extension of the PKK, the outlawed Kurdish militant group in Turkey.

"Nobody can expect us to allow a terror corridor on our southern border," Erdogan said. Turkey, he added, had sought the establishment of a "safe zone" in Syria but the idea had not received the backing of other world powers.

(Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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