Turkey to continue military operation in northern Syria: Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Turkey is to keep up its so-called Euphrates Shield military operation in northern Syria, which serves to keep Kurdish militants away from its borders.

The operation spans Syria’s Afrin and Manbij regions. The country launched the mission in 2016, saying it sought to fight off the Takfiri Daesh terror group. Later, however, Ankara was seen using the drive to push against the Kurds.

Turkey associates the Kurdish militants in Syria with the homegrown Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has been fighting a decades-long separatist war against Ankara.

The Turkish operation, however, comes without the Syrian government’s permission, prompting repeated calls by Damascus to stop its military intervention.

Separately, Erdogan branded a United States legal case against a Turkish banker as a “political coup attempt” and a joint effort by the CIA and the FBI to undermine Turkey.

EA