In a fresh display of defiance against the United States, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to expand Turkey’s military offensive against Kurdish militants in Syria today, saying territories under their control would be restored to their “rightful owners.”

Speaking to members of his ruling Justice and Development Party in the Turkish parliament, Erdogan bellowed, “They tell us, ‘Don’t come to Manbij.’ We will come to Manbij to hand over these territories to their rightful owners,” he said. Erdogan's "they" meant the United States, which has warned Turkey against moving against its top ally the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protections Units (YPG) in Manbij, a mainly Arab town west of the Euphrates River that was captured by the YPG and its Arab allies with the coalition’s help in August 2016.

Turkey insists that the United States betrayed its promise to get the YPG to withdraw from Manbij once it was liberated from the Islamic State (IS) and that it therefore reserves the right to take matters into its own hands there. Turkish anger ballooned when a spokesman confirmed that the coalition was training a border protection force drawn from the YPG to police Syria’s borders with Iraq and Turkey.

Erdogan’s repeated threats to attack Manbij have prompted a flurry of anguished commentary over a looming military confrontation between Turkey and the United States.