Small Wars Journal

Turkey Threatens to Attack Kurdish Allies of U.S. in Syria

Wed, 01/17/2018 - 2:48pm

Turkey Threatens to Attack Kurdish Allies of U.S. in Syria by Sune Engel Rasmussen – Wall Street Journal

Turkey is massing troops on the border with Syria and has said it would launch full-scale attacks on the Kurdish force there that helped the U.S. beat back Islamic State, as the defeat of the extremist group makes way for old rivalries to resurface.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, referring to Kurdish fighters, said on Tuesday that Turkey would soon “destroy all terror nests one by one in Syria,” beginning with two northern cities, Afrin and Manbij.

U.S. support for the main Syrian Kurdish militia, the YPG, has been a source of tension with Turkey, an ally in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Turkey considers the YPG to be the same group as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), whose militants have fought for decades for Kurdish rights in Turkey...

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