ANKARA/BEIRUT – Turkey urged the United States on Thursday to halt itssupport for Kurdish YPG fighters or risk confronting Turkish forces on theground in Syria, some of Ankara’s strongest comments yet about a potentialclash with its NATO ally.
The comments, from the spokesman for President Tayyip Erdogan’s government,underscore the growing bilateral tensions, six days after Turkey launchedits air and ground operation, “Olive Branch”, in Syria’s northwestern Afrinregion.
Turkey’s targeting of the YPG, which it views as a security threat, hasopened a new front in Syria’s multi-sided civil war.
Any push by Turkish forces towards Manbij, part of a Kurdish-held territorysome 100 km (60 miles) east of Afrin, could threaten U.S. plans tostabilise northeast Syria and bring them into direct confrontation withU.S. troops deployed there.
“Those who support the terrorist organisation will become a target in thisbattle,” Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said.
“The United States needs to review its solders and elements giving supportto terrorists on the ground in such a way as to avoid a confrontation withTurkey,” Bozdag, who also acts as the government’s spokesman, toldbroadcaster A Haber.
The United States has around 2,000 troops in Syria, officially as part ofan international, U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State. Washington hasangered Ankara by providing arms, training and air support to SyrianKurdish forces that Turkey views as terrorists.
A coalition spokesman declined to address Bozdag’s comments.
US forces were deployed in and around Manbij last March to deter Turkishand US-backed rebels from attacking each other and have also carried outtraining missions in the area. US President Donald Trump urged Erdogan on Wednesday to curtail themilitary operation in Syria, the White House said.
However Turkey has disputed that characterisation of the conversation.
“President Trump did not share any ‘concerns about escalating violence’with regard to the ongoing military operation in Afrin,” a Turkish officialsaid.
“The two leaders’ discussion of Operation Olive Branch was limited to anexchange of views,” the official said.LIMITED GAINS
Six days into the campaign, Turkish soldiers and their Free Syrian Armyrebel fighter allies have been battling to gain footholds on the western,northern and eastern flanks of Afrin.
They appear to have made only limited gains, hampered by rain and clouds,which have limited the air support.
Turkish warplanes struck the northern borders of Afrin, in tandem withheavy artillery shelling, and one civilian was killed, according to theSyrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitoring group.
Dozens of combatants and more than two dozen civilians have been killed sofar since Turkey launched the offensive, the Observatory has said.
The Turkish military said in a statement it had killed 303 militants innorthern Syria since the operation started.
The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a YPG-dominated umbrella group backedby the United States in the fight against Islamic State, has previouslysaid that Turkey was exaggerating the number of the dead.U.S. TIES, GERMAN TANKS
Relations between Ankara and Washington have neared breaking point inrecent months over the U.S. support for the YPG and other issues.
Ankara considers the YPG to be an extension of the outlawed KurdistanWorkers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey’slargely Kurdish southeast. Washington sees the YPG as an effective partnerin the fight against Islamic State in Syria.
The U.S.-led coalition helped the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which isspearheaded by the YPG, to drive Islamic State from Manbij in 2016.