*WASHINGTON: *US President Donald Trump warned Monday that Turkey facesimminent sanctions over its incursion into northeastern Syria againstKurdish militia, but also signalled Washington would avoid armed conflictwith Ankara.
“Big sanctions on Turkey coming!” Trump said, after Turkish attacks steppedup over the weekend on the Syrian Kurds, who had allied with the US waragainst the Islamic State group.
But Trump also suggested the Kurds were trying to draw the United Statesinto a broader, alleging they were deliberately freeing some Islamic Stateprisoners “to get us involved” in the conflict.
“Do people really think we should go to war with NATO Member Turkey?” Trumpsaid, ruing “never ending wars.”
“The same people who got us into the Middle East mess are the people whomost want to stay there!”
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Trump over the weekend ordered around 1,000 US troops in northern Syriapulled back from the border region to avoid getting caught in the fighting.
“We have American forces likely caught between two opposing advancingarmies and it’s a very untenable situation,” Defense Secretary Mark Espertold CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. -APP/AFP
