SULAIMANI (ESTA) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Ankara committed to rooting out Kurdish fighters from northern Syria, warning that Turkey would not need anyone’s permission to fight terror.
“Like I always say, we’ll come down on them suddenly on night. And we must,” Erdogan told journalists on his plane following his Saturday visit to Azerbaijan.
On May 23, Erdogan said Turkey would launch a cross-border operation against the People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers a “terrorist group” linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“All coalition forces, leading with the U.S., have provided these terror groups a serious amount of weapons, vehicles, tools, ammunition and they continue to do so. The U.S. has given them thousands of trucks,” Erdogan said.
“If the U.S. is not fulfilling its duty in combating terror, what will we do? We will take care of ourselves,” he declared.
“Just as we are conducting operations in northern Iraq against the PKK and PKK’s offspring, the same situation applies even more to Syria and is much more important.”
Turkish forces have launched three major incursions into northern Syria, taking control of areas along the border in a bid to secure its frontier from threats from Islamic State (ISIS) and the YPG.
