Ankara has vowed to continue operations in northern Syria as fears grow over the attack on the Kurdish border town of Kobane.
Turkey has rejected the United States' announcement that it had agreed to a ceasefire with Kurdish forces in northern Syria, and vowed to continue to push them out of the region – a military operation launched after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. al-Assad.
Turkey's security chief on Thursday dismissed it what to say which was made by the spokesman of the US State Department Matthew Miller that the cease-fire announced in Washington between the rebels supported by Turkey and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) around the Syrian city of Manbij has been extended until the end of this week.
SDF is sponsored by Washington in the fight against ISIL, but Ankara considers it a “terrorist group”, saying that it is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has carried out terrorist attacks on Turkish soil for fourteen years.
On Thursday, a Turkish official described what Miller said as “out of the tongue”, saying that it was “unnecessary” for Turkiye to talk to the SDF, a group led by the People's Protection Units (YPG), which is seen. Additional information about the PKK.
“Until the PKK/YPG terrorist group disarms and foreign fighters leave Syria, our preparations and tactics will continue to fight terrorism,” the official said.
Turkey considers the PKK, YPG and SDF to be terrorist groups. Western allies the US and Turkey also refer to the PKK as “terrorists”, but not the YPG and the SDF.
The renewed fighting between the Turkish army and the Syrian Kurdish Islamists comes a week after the fighters led by the opposition. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) defeated former Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.
Reporting from Istanbul, Al Jazeera's Sinem Koseoglu said Turkey believes it is up to the new Syrian regime to remove “foreign fighters” – a reference to members of the PKK's YPG – from its territory.
“Turkey considers all the PKK groups in the YPG as foreign fighters and the Turkish foreign minister said that these foreign fighters … ,” he said.
If the new organization fails to remove foreign fighters from its territory, Turkiye may intervene, he added.
The Turkish official's comments came as concerns grew over Turkey's attack on the Syrian border town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, about 50km (30 miles) northeast of Manbij.
US President-elect Donald Trump described the fall of al-Assad as “wrongful seizure“A Turkish writer, who joined several opposition groups that led the lightning strike in Damascus.
Speaking to Al Jazeera on Wednesday, the Turkish foreign minister Hakan Fidan rejected Trump's comments, saying it would be “a big mistake” to describe what is happening in Syria as a Turkish occupation.