Turkey’s military has launched a long-expected offensive into northeastern Syria targeting US-allied Syrian Kurdish fighters who have played a central role in battling the Islamic State militant group.
“The Turkish Armed Forces, together with the Syrian National Army, just launched #OperationPeaceSpring against PKK/YPG and Daesh terrorists in northern Syria,” President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wrote Wednesday afternoon on Twitter, referring to the Syrian Kurdish force as well as the Islamic State.
“Our mission is to prevent the creation of a terror corridor across our southern border, and to bring peace to the area,” he said, referring to plans to create a Turkish-controlled “safe zone” in northeastern Syria. Turkish media outlets aired footage of warplanes leaving from an air base in southeastern Turkey. Witnesses reported explosions in and around Tal Abyad, a Syrian border town, as well as Ras al-Ayn, a town farther east along the frontier.
Source: Nzherald
Featured Image: Smoke billows from a fire inside Syria during bombardment by Turkish forces. Photo / Nzherald
