Turkey’s U.S.-backed push into northern Syria Wednesday was aimed at ISIS, but also sent Ankara’s nemesis – and American ally the Kurds – retreating east of the Euphrates, making good on a vow from strongman Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
(FOX)- Amid a fence-mending visit from Vice President Biden, Erdogan’s tough rhetoric against the Kurds, a reliable and effective American partner in the fight against ISIS, appeared to force the U.S. to choose sides in the separate, and longstanding fead between its allies.
Erdogan had demanded that the Kurds, linked to a political group accused of committing acts of terrorism inside Turkey, move back across the river and away from his nation’s western border with Syria. The call came despite Kurdish forces’ effectiveness in fighting ISIS on the western side of the river.
Biden, in Turkey Wednesday to smooth relations as Ankara demands extradition of a U.S.-based cleric it accuses of plotting last month’s failed coup, echoed Erdogan’s call on the Kurds to leave Arab lands in Syria and return east of the Euphrates to traditional Kurdish territory. The vice president even threatening to cut off supplies to the Kurds if they didn’t fall back.
Some of the Syrian Democratic Forces remained in the region to remove roadside bombs, U.S. officials added.
The United States is supporting the Turkish military operation with airstrikes and conducted at least eight against ISIS targets on Wednesday, according to a senior defense official.