Friday marks the seventh day of Turkey’s third military operation in Syria, dubbed the Olive Branch. According to Turkish military, a total of “343 terrorists” have been neutralized in the course of the campaign.
“We will continue our fight until there is no terrorist on our border leading to Iraq,” Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara, vowing to “clean up” the Syrian city of Manbij, which is located east of Afrin.
According to Erdogan, Turkey will rid Syria’s Manbij of terrorists after Afrin and nobody should be bothered by this.
US forces are currently deployed in Manbij alongside Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighters, considered by Ankara affiliates of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), designated as a terrorist organization in Turkey and several other countries.