President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Erdoğan on Monday vowed that Turkey would take necessary steps in Syria as soon as possible following an attack Ankara blames on Kurdish forces that left two Turkish police officers dead.
On Sunday, the Turkish Interior Minister said a missile fired from the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG)-controlled town of Tel Rifat in northern Syria struck an armoured vehicle, killing two Turkish special operations police officers and wounding three others.
“We have run out of patience,” Sabah newspaper cited Erdoğan as saying following a cabinet meeting. “Turkey is determined to eliminate threats arising from northern Syria, either together with forces active there, or by our own means.”
Since 2016, Turkey and Turkish-backed rebel groups have staged three large-scale military operations in northern Syria, seizing territory along the border from the Islamic State (ISIS) as well as the YPG.
Ankara maintains the YPG is the Syrian wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), an around group that has been at war in Turkey for Kurdish self-rule for 40 years and designated a “terror” group by Turkey and its NATO allies.
“We have no patience left regarding certain locations serving as the source for terror attacks on our country from Syria,’’ the Turkish president said.
The Kurdish-majority YPG militia has played a vital role in the U.S.-led coalition’s ground operations against ISIS and has been one of a string of issues of contention between Ankara and Washington.
Ahval