Turkey has launched a military operation against “terrorist groups” east of the Euphrates River,Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday, referring to Syrian Kurdish groups.
The announcement comes less than a week after the president issued a “final warning” to “those who would endanger Turkey’s borders”, saying Ankara was determined to focus its attention on Syrian Kurdish fighters east of the Euphrates.
Turkey will soon launch “more effective operations” against “terror groups” President Erdogan said Tuesday, without specifying what that will entail, Turkey’s pro-government daily Yeni Safak reported. The president said that his forces “will destroy terror structures in east of Euphrates.”
Earlier on Sunday, Turkey fired artillery shells at a Kurdish militia in Syria that is backed by the United States but deemed a terrorist group by Ankara.
The shells targeted “shelters” of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) east of the Euphrates River in the Kobane region of northern Syria.
Turkey considers the YPG militia an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has led an insurgency in Turkey for more than three decades.
Turkey carried out an offensive against YPG forces in northern Syria’s Afrin region earlier this year.
The YPG took control of large areas of northeast Syria in 2012 as government forces pulled out to fight rebels in the west.