Turkey says, it will not stop its operation against Kurdish fighters in northern Syria

Turkey has said, it will not stop its operation against Kurdish militants in northern Syria. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul yesterday, despite the threats from other countries, the steps taken will not be stopped. He said, the fight will continue until all the terrorists go south of the 32-kilometre (20 miles) limit from the border of Turkey that US President Trump himself mentioned.

Turkey launched an operation on Wednesday against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria that it considers a terrorist off-shoot of Kurdish insurgents in its own territory. It aims to establish a buffer zone to keep the YPG away



from its border -- an idea that was first publicly mooted by US President Donald Trump at the start of the year.

Meanwhile, Turkish forces faced fierce resistance from US-allied Syrian Kurdish fighters on the third day of Ankara's offensive in northern Syria, as casualties mounted and the number of those who fled the violence at swelled to 100,000.

 

Turkey says it captured more Kurdish-held villages in the border region. A war monitor said Kurdish fighters waged intense battles against advancing Turkish troops that sought to take control of two major towns along the Turkish-Syrian border.