US official speaks out against possible Turkish offensive in Syria
After Iraqi Kurdistan-backed Rojava Peshmerga are sent to the Turkish-Syrian border, Turkish officials inveigh against the action and what it represents.
ANKARA, Turkey — Turkish TV channels gave prominence today to the US-backed deployment of Syrian Kurdish militia along the Turkish-Syrian border, saying it could obstruct Turkey’s plans to send its army into northeast Syria.
NTV and CNNTurk screened archive photos of the militia, the Rojava Peshmerga, firing mortar bombs and heavy machine-guns, and a long line of US armored cars driving along a dirt road.
“Seven to 10 thousand Rojava Peshmerga have been trained by the US in northern Iraq,” the pro-government journalist for Hurriyet newspaper, Abdulkadir Selvi, told CNNTurk. “These developments are being watched carefully in Ankara.”
The reports came a day after the US special envoy for Syria, James Jeffrey, spoke out against Turkey’s plan to invade northeast Syria to crush the People’s Protection Units (YPG). Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the plan Dec. 12, stressing his forces would not attack the roughly 2,000 US soldiers in Syria, but would “clear the east of the Euphrates from separatist terrorists.”
