Turkey’s top diplomat and US Secretary of State discuss downed drone, need to deconflict activities
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Turkey stepped up cross-border air raids against Kurdish targets in north-eastern Syria and northern Iraq in retaliation for a bombing in Ankara that injured two policemen.
PHOTO: AFP
ISTANBUL – Turkey’s top diplomat told US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday that Ankara’s air strikes in Syria will continue despite the US downing of a Turkish drone.
The phone call between Mr Blinken and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan came one day after a US fighter jet shot down a Turkish combat drone that was targeting Kurdish forces backed by Washington in Syria.
It marked the first such incident between the Nato allies.
Mr Fidan told Mr Blinken that “Turkey’s counter-terrorism operations in Iraq and Syria will continue with determination”, a Turkish diplomatic source said after the call.
Mr Blinken “highlighted the need to coordinate and deconflict our activities”, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said.
Downplaying the longstanding disagreements over Turkey’s actions against Kurdish forces, Mr Miller said the two top diplomats agreed on a “common objective of defeating terrorist threats... regardless of where the threats are based – in Syria, Iraq or elsewhere”.
Turkey stepped up cross-border air raids against Kurdish targets in north-eastern Syria and northern Iraq in retaliation for a bombing in Ankara that injured two policemen on Sunday.
A branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party – listed as a terrorist group by Turkey and its Western allies – claimed responsibility for the first such attack in Ankara since 2016.
Turkey concluded that the two assailants who died in the Ankara attack came from Syria.
Turkey’s operation in Syria is primarily targeting oil and other facilities controlled by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG).
The group is an integral part of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces – the Kurds’ de facto army in the area – that spearheaded the battle to dislodge Islamic State in Iraq and Syria group militants from the region in 2019.
United States support for the YPG has strained Ankara’s ties with Washington since the Islamic militants’ defeat.
Those tensions spilt over when a US fighter jet on Thursday shot down a Turkish combat drone that was considered to be a threat to US forces backing up the YPG.
The Turkish presidency on Friday called foreign support for the YPG “a colossal folly”. AFP