Trump’s shock order came after Erdogan convinced him that Turkey could eliminate the last remaining pockets of ISIS after the jihadists suffered a series of military defeats. “We have the strength to neutralize (ISIS) by ourselves,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu insisted on Tuesday. “ISIS is close to Boukamal, more than 400km (250 miles) from Turkey, impossible for Turkey to go so far. Between August 2016 and March 2017, Turkish troops supported Syrian opposition fighters capture territory from ISIS in northern Syria. If Turkey were to fight ISIS alone and then left the battles to Syrian Arab proxies, “militarily weaker” than the extremists, it would not be very effective, Khatib said.

Source: Egypt Independent December 26, 2018 08:37 UTC