Turkey's assault on Syrian Kurdish forces has not breached a red line declared by President Donald Trump, a US official said Thursday, as he added that Washington wanted to broker a ceasefire.
Trump, in a week of mixed messages, initially voiced understanding for Turkey before criticizing the offensive and warning of sanctions if the operation is not "humane."
Asked to define what actions would violate Trump's vague warning, the US official said they would include "ethnic cleansing... indiscriminate artillery, air and other fires directed at civilian populations."
"That is what we're looking at right now. We have not seen significant examples of that so far, but we're very early," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
He said that the operation launched Wednesday was not yet large-scale, saying the Turks "really have not engaged in great depth or in great numbers inside the border yet."
"That's one reason why we're issuing so many warnings, because we're very, very concerned about such indiscriminate firings," he said.
Trump has come under heavy criticism at home, even among usually steadfast Republican supporters, who say he abandoned US-allied Kurdish fighters who led the fight against the Islamic State group.
In a phone call on Sunday with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Trump -- a longtime critic of prolonged military involvements overseas -- said he was withdrawing US troops who had effectively served as a buffer preventing a Turkish incursion.
On Twitter on Thursday, Trump said that he hoped to "mediate a deal between Turkey and the Kurds" -- saying the alternatives were sending in "thousands of troops" or hitting Turkey hard with sanctions.
Asked to elaborate on the remarks, the US official said that Trump had asked diplomats to seek an end to the violence.
"We have been tasked by the president to try to see if there are areas of commonality between the two sides, if there's a way that we can find our way to a ceasefire," the official said.
He noted that Turkey in the past has reached ceasefires with the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, which has waged decades of separatist violence inside Turkey.
Erdogan as well as the Trump administration link the PKK to the Kurdish People's Protection Unit, or YPG, which dominates the Syrian Democratic Forces in Syria.
"That's the path that the president would most prefer to do -- a negotiated settlement," the official said.
Meanwhile, the Turkish National Defense Ministry said on Thursday that a total of 174 Kurdish militants have been 'neutralized' so far since Turkey started Operation Peace Spring in northern Syria.
According to Anadolu Agency, the Turkish army backed by the Syrian National Army have liberated 11 villages of Tal Abyad town and Ras al-Ayn city from terrorists on Thursday.
The villages of al-Yabisah and Tal Fandar were the first ones cleared of terrorists as part of the Operation Peace Spring -- launched Wednesday east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria to secure its borders by eliminating terrorist elements and to ensure the safe return of Syrian refugees and Syria’s territorial integrity.
Later, the villages of Musheirifa, Dadat, Bir Ashiq and Hamidiyah in Tal Abyad and Kishto in Ras al-Ayn were also cleared of terrorists.
The villages of Lower Kishto west of Ras al-Ayn, Barzan, Al Jadedah and Gisas were also rid of terrorists.
SNA forces are taking security precautions in villages located west of Tal Abyad.
The Syrian National Army (SNA) entered territory east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria on Thursday to support Turkey's Operation Peace Spring.
Ankara has freed an area of 4,000 square km (1,544 square miles) in Syria from terrorist groups in two separate cross-border operations.
In his turn, Syria's deputy foreign minister Faisal Maqdad attacked U.S.-backed Kurdish-led SDF forces Thursday, saying they had betrayed their country and accusing them of a separatist agenda that gave Turkey a pretext to violate his country's sovereignty.
Asked about whether Damascus should resume dialogue with the Kurdish-led forces that were facing a Turkish assault to oust them from northeast Syria, Maqdad said these "armed groups had betrayed their country and committed crimes against it."
"We won't accept any dialogue or talk with those who had become hostages to foreign forces ... There won't be any foothold for the agents of Washington on Syrian territory," Maqdad told reporters in his office in Damascus.
A Syrian Kurdish official said earlier this week that the Kurdish-led authorities in northern Syria may open talks with Damascus and Russia to fill a security vacuum in the event of a full withdrawal of U.S. forces from the Turkish border area.
A top commander was also quoted as saying one option for the Kurds was to hand back territory to the Syrian government.
The powerful Kurdish YPG militia was helped by the Syrian government to take control of mainly Kurdish inhabited cities in the early days of the conflict, as Damascus turned its attention to quelling popular protests against President Bashar al Assad's rule that turned later into an armed insurrection.
The Syrian Kurdish YPG never fought the government during the war, and even accommodated the Syrian government's presence in its main city of Qamishli and has a lucrative illicit oil sales business with Damascus.
Damascus, however, is loathe to cede the Syrian Kurds the level of autonomy they seek. The government earlier this year threatened the U.S.-backed Kurdish forces with military defeat if they did not agree to a return of state authority.
Zaman Al Wasl, Agencies
Comments About This Article
Please fill the fields below.