Turkey to impose secure zones east of Euphrates in Syria – Erdogan

Turkey will take action east of the Euphrates river in Syria and impose secure zones as it has done in the northwest of the country, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in comments broadcast on Monday. Earlier this year, Turkey carried out a military operation to seize control of Syria’s Afrin region from the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, which Ankara considers a terrorist organization. The YPG also controls the Syrian region east of the Euphrates. “We will increase the number of secure zones in Syria, encompassing the east of the Euphrates,” Erdogan said in a speech during a visit to New York, Reuters reports. Before the Afrin operation, Turkey also carried out a cross-border operation dubbed “Euphrates Shield,” which targeted both the YPG and Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) fighters east of Afrin. Erdogan has in the past warned of new military operations against the YPG along the Syrian border and if necessary into northern Iraq.