Turkey may start new military op in Syria at any moment – Erdogan

Turkey may start a new military operation in Syria at any moment, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday. He added that US President Donald Trump had given a positive response to Ankara’s plans for an operation east of the Euphrates, Reuters reports. Erdogan made the statement in the central province of Konya. Last week, he said Turkish forces would launch a new cross-border operation against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, considered a terrorist organization by Ankara, to the east of the Euphrates river in northern Syria. Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu was quoted earlier Monday as saying that Washington had tried to hold Turkey back during two operations in Syria in the last two years against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) and the YPG, which controls swathes of Syria’s northern border region. “Now, [the US] will try to hold us back east of the Euphrates. Turkey did not, and will not, allow that,” Soylu said.