ANKARA/AZAZ: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday threatened to expand Turkey’s offensive in Syria against a Kurdish militia, despite rising concern and calls for restraint from the US and other Western allies.

In the seventh day of the operation against the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia, Erdogan vowed to “clean up” the Syrian city of Manbij.

The United States has raised concerns over the deadly offensive, and analysts say direct military conflict between the two Nato powers is possible since the US has a military presence in Manbij.

Turkey launched operation “Olive Branch” against the YPG on Saturday, supporting Syrian rebels with ground troops, air strikes and artillery fire.Erdogan vowed in a speech in Ank­ara that Turkey would “continue our fight until there is no terrorist on our border”, but did not elaborate.

He said the operation would last until “we reach our goals,” adding: “Afterwards we will, as promised, clean up Manbij of terrorists.” But Erdogan and Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Friday insisted Turkey was not intending to occupy Afrin and would return the region to its “real” owners.

Tensions between Ankara and Washington are already high but the offensive has added further strain to their relationship. The two sides disagreed about the content of telephone talks between Erdo­gan and US President Dona­­ld Trump on Wednesday.

Washington said Trump had urged Turkey to “limit its military actions” but a Turkish official said the US statement did “not accurately reflect the content” of the call.

Erdogan criticised Turkey’s allies, including the United States, which he said called for the operation to be “short” and “limited” in scope, referring to previous interventions.

“How long has Afgha­nis­tan lasted? Nearly 20 years. How long has it (the conflict) lasted in Iraq? Nearly 18 years!” he thundered.

Washington has more than 2,000 special forces and support troops inside Syria, mainly east of the Euphrates in an area also controlled by the YPG but separate from Afrin, which is west of the river.

According to Anthony Skinner, director of MENA at global risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft, “direct military conflict” between Turkish and US forces is possible because of Erdo­gan’s threats to expand the campaign to Manbij.

“Turkish-US relations are teetering on the brink of a precipice,” Skinner added.

The European Union has also expressed concern over the Turkish intervention in Syria, which is further complicating the war that has claimed more than 340,000 lives since 2011.

14 killed, 130 wounded in Afrin

Turkey’s health minister said on Friday that 14 Turkish soldiers and Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels were killed and another 130 people were wounded following Turkey’s incursion into Syria’s Afrin region.

Speaking to reporters after visiting wounded soldiers in hospitals, Ahmet Demircan said three Turkish soldiers and 11 fighters from Turkey-backed FSA factions have been killed so far in clashes in northern Syria.

He said 130 people had been brought to Turkish hospitals and that 82 of them had been released after receiving treatment. None of the wounded were in critical condition, he said, adding that additional medical personnel were sent to the area.

Dozens of combatants and more than two dozen civilians have been killed so far in the offensive, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, has said.

The Turkish military said in a statement on Friday it had killed at least 343 militants in northern Syria since the operation started.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) however, a YPG-dominated umbrella group backed by the United States in the fight against IS, has previously said that Turkey was exaggerating the number of the dead.

Published in Dawn, January 27th, 2018