Erdogan threatens new incursion into northern Syria

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested that Turkey could soon launch a new incursion across the border into northern Syria.

Erdogan's address to a military ceremony honoring Turkish commando soldiers on Friday renewed his threat to expand Turkey's military operations into areas east of the Euphrates River held by US-backed Kurdish militants.

"God willing, very soon...we will leave the terror nests east of the Euphrates in disarray," Erdogan said. 

Turkey invaded Syria in 2016 and 2018, occupying areas west of the Euphrates. The country associates Kurdish militants with anti-Ankara separatists, who have been fighting a deadly decades-long war against the country.

It has locked horns on several occasions with the US, which has been generously arming and training the militants under the pretext of fighting Daesh terrorists who have been driven out of much of the territories under their control in Syria.

Most recently, Turkey deployed forces to Idlib Province in the Euphrates River's western side as part of a joint operation with Russia to create a buffer zone. 

Syria regards the presence of Turkish troops as illegal and wants them to leave its territories. 

Syrian President Bashar Assad said earlier this month that the Russian-Turkish deal to avert a military offensive in Idlib is a "temporary one" that prevented bloodshed but that his government's goal is to restore control over all of Syria.

SS