ANKARA: Kurdish forces are continuing to withdraw in northeast Syria but Turkey will resume its military assault there once a US-brokered cease-fire expires on Tuesday if promises given by Washington are not kept, President Tayyip Erdogan said. Turkey says Kurdish YPG militia forces must leave a “safe zone” it wants to establish along its border with northeast Syria. “The withdrawal is continuing,” Erdogan told reporters at Ankara airport before flying to Russia for talks with President Vladimir Putin on Syria. It has been said that they will withdraw,” Erdogan said. Turkey is holding covert contacts with Syria’s government, partly via Russia, to avert direct conflict in northeast Syria, Turkish officials say.

Source: Ethiopian News October 22, 2019 09:00 UTC