Date: Oct 31, 2018 Source: The Daily Star Turkey to ‘destroy’ U.S.-backed YPG in Syria ANKARA/BEIRUT: Turkey has completed preparations for a new operation in northern Syria to “destroy” a U.S.-backed Kurdish militia that Ankara considers a terrorist group, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday. The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) holds territory east of the Euphrates River, where Turkey has repeatedly threatened to launch a fresh offensive against the militia. “We are going to destroy the terrorist structure in the east of the Euphrates. We have completed our preparations, plans, programs regarding this issue,” Erdogan told lawmakers from his own ruling party in Parliament. Erdogan appeared to indirectly confirm Turkish state media reports that Turkey’s military fired artillery shells at YPG positions east of the Euphrates in the Kobane region of northern Syria Sunday. The YPG has held the area since 2015. “In fact, in the past few days, we have begun real interventions against the terror organization,” Erdogan said, without giving further details. “We are going to breathe down the necks of the terror organization with comprehensive and effective operations soon. As I have always said, we can come suddenly one night,” he added. Erdogan has previously made similar threats and Friday gave the YPG a “final warning.” The YPG has worked closely with the United States in the fight against Daesh (ISIS) in Syria, straining relations between Washington and Ankara, which says the militia is a “terrorist offshoot” of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). In a bid to lower tensions, the U.S. and Turkey in June agreed to work together in Manbij, west of the Euphrates, after Ankara repeatedly threatened to attack the city. Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said Tuesday that training had been completed and joint patrols would begin. Turkey and the U.S. agreed to conduct independent, coordinated patrols while troops from both countries began training together earlier this month. The YPG holds swathes of territory in Syria’s north and northeast. Manbij is controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces, an umbrella group dominated by the YPG. Hundreds of Kurdish fighters meanwhile arrived in eastern Syria to help a U.S.-backed alliance fight Daesh group after a major setback last week. The SDF launched an offensive on September 10 to expel Daesh from their holdout of Hajin on the Iraqi border. They advanced slowly inside the pocket backed by coalition air-strikes, but faced sand storms and a vicious fightback including suicide bombers, which forced them to retreat back to square one Sunday. According to the Observatory for Human Rights, at least 72 SDF fighters were killed in last week’s Daesh counter-attack, one of the militants group’s deadliest operations this year. The Observatory said hundreds of Kurdish fighters, men and women, had arrived on the outskirts of the Hajin pocket since then. “Since Sunday, over two days, 500 fighters from the Kurdish special forces, the People’s Protection Units and the Women’s Protection Units have been sent,” Rahman said. He said that several thousand SDF fighters were already present in the area. An SDF spokesman said Kurdish fighters “experienced in fighting Daesh” had been sent as reinforcements to the Hajin front, but said he could not confirm numbers. “These units will take part in fighting Daesh on the Hajin front,” Mustefa Bali said. An SDF commander told AFP Sunday that military reinforcements and heavy weapons had been sent to the front. He said the alliance would launch a new campaign as soon as the reinforcements had arrived. More than 300 SDF fighters and around 500 Daesh militants have been killed in the past seven weeks of fighting, the Observatory says. The coalition estimates that 2,000 Daesh fighters remain in the Hajin area. Separately, Turkey’s foreign minister rejected Syrian government accusations that it is not meeting its obligations under an agreement to create a demilitarized zone around the insurgent-held Idlib region, saying the deal was being implemented as planned. The agreement forged in September between Russia, President Bashar Assad’s most powerful ally, and Turkey, which backs the rebels, staved off a major government offensive into the opposition-held region in northwest Syria. Russian President Vladimir Putin said after a four-way summit on Syria with Turkey, Germany and France Saturday that Ankara was fulfilling its obligations in Idlib, which with adjacent areas is the last stronghold of the anti-Assad insurgency. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem said in comments reported late Monday Turkey appeared unwilling to implement the deal. “The terrorists still exist with their heavy arms in this region and this is an indicator of Turkey’s unwillingness to fulfill its obligations,” Moallem said in Damascus, according to the official news agency SANA. Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu dismissed the allegations Tuesday, saying the agreement was continuing as planned. “There are currently no issues in implementing the memorandum ... Everything is going as planned,” Cavusoglu told a news conference in Istanbul. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Turkey was doing its best to fulfill difficult obligations in Idlib, but that “not everything was going as it was planned.” Russia did not see a threat that the agreement would fail, he added. The Syrian government has vowed to recover “every inch” of Syria, including the Idlib region.