Turkey- US rules out ground operation in Syria
Date
2/17/2016 5:28:49 AM
(MENAFN- The Journal Of Turkish Weekly) The United States has ruled out all plans to launch a ground operation in Syria one day after a senior Turkish official said Turkey had asked its allies for ground troops to be sent to Syria.
“There’s no plans to put ground troops at least on the part of the U.S. into Syria.” U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Feb. 16 during a daily press briefing.
Meanwhile Reuters reported a Turkish official as saying “We are [telling] coalition partners that there should be a ground operation. We are discussing this with allies” at a press briefing in Istanbul on Feb. 16.
“There is not going to be a unilateral military operation from Turkey in Syria” the official said according to Agence France-Presse while adding “Without a ground operation it is impossible to stop the fighting in Syria.”
Toner said the U.S. saw no signs that Turkey was preparing for a ground invasion of northern Syria.
“We’ve not seen any evidence of Turkey’s preparing any kind of ground offensive” said U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner during a daily press briefing.
He stressed however that the aim of the U.S.-led anti-Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) coalition of which Turkey is a member remains on training and equipping local forces while supporting those groups with airstrikes.
“We’ve been very clear [about] our intent within the coalition; our focus remains on equipping and training but also supporting with airstrikes and other assistance the groups who are already fighting effectively on the ground in northern Syria. We’re not going to significantly change our footprint” Toner said.
The region has recently seen the Syrian government and Syrian Kurdish advances assisted byRussianairpower.
Most recently Syrian forces have seized cities surrounding Aleppo as Kurdish Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD) fighters known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG) have captured strategic towns to the north including Azez located just 6 kilometers from the Turkish border drawing Ankara’s ire.
Turkey has bombarded the Azez district for four straight days starting from Feb. 13.
Ankara views the YPG as an extension of the outlawedKurdistan Workers’ Party(PKK) with which it has been in an armed conflict for more than 30 years. But Washington has remained steadfast in its support for the group calling it an effective and reliable partner in the fight against ISIL.
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