President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday threatened to expand Turkey’s offensive in Syria against a Kurdish militia despite calls for restraint from its Western allies. On 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. Turkey launched operation “Olive Branch” against the YPG on Saturday, supporting Syrian rebels with ground troops, air strikes and artillery fire. While the YPG is still working closely with Washington against Daesh extremist group in Syria, Ankara views the YPG as a terror organisation allied to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) inside Turkey. The two sides disagreed about the content of telephone talks between Erdogan and US President Donald Trump on Wednesday.

Source: Pakistan Today January 26, 2018 14:26 UTC