Turkey fired on Kurdish positions on Sunday in retaliation for the November attack in Istanbul
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday he intends to launch a “ground operation” in Syria, a day after several bombings of Kurdish positions in Syria and Iraq and several rocket attacks on Turkey from Syria.
“It is not about this operation being limited to an air operation,” the head of state told Turkish journalists who accompanied him on his return journey from Qatar, where he attended the opening ceremony of the World Cup.
Sunday’s airstrikes, which left some 30 dead in Syria, came in retaliation for the November 13 attack in Istanbul that killed six people and which Ankara blamed Kurdish “terrorists”.
“The competent units, our Ministry of Defense and our General Staff will decide together with which force our land forces should act,” said the president, who indicated that “consultations” are being held on this matter. “We have already warned: those who harass us on our territory will pay for it,” he insisted.
According to the Turkish president, “70 planes and drones” took part in the operation, dubbed ‘Claw-Sword’, which intervened against positions of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Popular Protection Units (YPG). “They entered 140 kilometers into northern Iraq and 20 kilometers into northern Syria,” Erdogan said.
On the other hand, the president stated that he had “not had any conversation” with the US president, Joe Biden, nor with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, about that operation.
The United States supports the YPG in northeastern Syria against the jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) group and Russia supports pro-regime Syrian militias in the same region.
Several rockets launched from Syria on Sunday evening and Monday morning reached the border and Turkish territory, killing three and injuring about 15.
Source: La Verdad
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