Turkey will not let US hold it back in Syria

Turkey pledged on Monday to press ahead with plans to target a Kurdish militia in northern Syria, brushing off what it said were American efforts to stymie Turkish military operations east of the Euphrates.

President Tayyip Erdogan said last week that Turkey would launch a new operation within days against the US-backed Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in northern Syria, reports Reuters.

The Pentagon expressed grave concern and said unilateral military action there by any party would be “unacceptable”.

Relations between the two NATO allies have long been strained by Syria policy. The United States has backed the YPG against Islamic State fighters.

Ankara, however, sees the YPG as terrorists tied to PKK militants who have fought an insurgency in southeast Turkey for 34 years.

Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said Washington had tried to hold Turkey back during two operations in Syria in the last two years against Islamic State and the YPG, which controls swathes of Syria’s northern border region.