US taking measures to prevent Turkey fighting Kurds in Syria

The military commander of the US Central Command (CENTCOM) yesterday said that his nation was taking measures to prevent a clash between the Turkish military and its Syrian allies on one side, against militant leftist Kurds on the other in northern Syria.

In comments made during a hearing at the Armed Services Senate Committee yesterday in Washington D.C., General Joseph Votel said that US efforts to prevent a clash between these two opposing forces was not a simple task, and that it would require significant military and diplomatic efforts to contain.

Votel said: “We are trying to cooperate with a local force who has…tension with a NATO ally [Turkey], and this is not an easy scenario.”

Read: US-coalition strikes near Syria’s Raqqa city kill 14

Although he acknowledged the difficulties Turkey has with extremist leftist groups such as the Kurdish YPG in Syria, deemed to be a sister organisation to Turkey’s proscribed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Votel said that the US was continuing to reduce tensions between both sides.

In his testimony, however, he praised Turkey for clearing Daesh out of large stretches of northern Syria, yet also blamed Ankara for utilising language that he deemed to “have the potential to impact campaign momentum” against Daesh, specifically mentioning recent clashes with Kurdish forces near Manbij.

Votel refused to provide any details about when Daesh’s Syrian capital of Raqqa would be recaptured from the extremist group, despite the US-led coalition announcing further American boots on the ground in northern Syria.

Coalition spokesman John Dorrian confirmed earlier this week that a US Marine Corps artillery battalion had been deployed to assist in operations to recapture Raqqa, though he denied that they would have a frontline role.

These remarks from US military figures come as Turkey reiterated its intention to strike the YPG as part of its ongoing military operation, dubbed “Euphrates Shield”, to secure Turkey’s southern border with Syria.