AZAZ: Turkey on Saturday urged the United States to withdraw personnel from a Kurdish-held town in northern Syria after Washington told Ankara it would stop arming a Syrian Kurdish militia that Turkey is fighting.

As Turkey’s offensive in Syria entered its second week with new air strikes and artillery, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said it was “necessary for them (US) to immediately withdraw from Manbij”, where Washington has a military presence.

Turkey launched operation “Olive Branch” on Jan 20 against the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia in its western enclave of Afrin, supporting Syrian opposition fighters with ground troops and air strikes.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to expand the offensive against the YPG to Manbij, east of Afrin.

Relations between Nato allies Ankara and Washington have worsened since Turkey launched an operation, with the United States urging restraint and fearing an impact on the fight against the militant Islamic State (IS) group.

One of the issues marring relations was the US supplying the YPG militia — which has spearheaded the fight against militants — with arms since last year in battles against IS.

Manbij itself was retaken from IS by the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in 2016 as part of a push that would later recapture the city of Raqa from the jihadists.

The Turkish presidency said US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster “confirmed” to Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin in a phone call late Friday that Washington would no longer “give weapons to the YPG”.

“God willing we will crush them (terror groups) like a steam roller,” Erdogan said on Saturday during a speech in Istanbul.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim hit out at critics, explaining the “operation was not an option but a necessity”.

‘Cut ties with YPG’

Earlier this month, the US-led coalition fighting IS said it was working to create a 30,000-strong border security force in northern Syria.

During their call, McMaster and Kalin agreed to coordinate closely in order to prevent misunderstandings.

The contact came just days after Washington and Ankara bitterly contested each other’s accounts of a telephone conversation between Erdogan and US President Donald Trump.

A White House statement said Trump urged Turkey to “limit its military actions”, but a Turkish official said this was not an accurate reflection of the leaders’ call.

Published in Dawn, January 28th, 2018