Turkey on Thursday urged France not to “make the same mistake” as the US by sending troops to the Syrian town of Manbij, which Ankara has threatened to attack to dislodge Kurdish militia. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey would expand its offensive against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia to the town in north Syria. Turkey’s Yeni Safak daily said that France had deployed 50 soldiers to Manbij to support the YPG. Anadolu news agency reported that 100 French special forces were deployed at five bases in YPG-controlled areas of Syria. According to Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin, officials were looking into the reports and Turkey will inform Paris of its opposition “if this is found to be true,” AFP reported.