Middle East
Erdogan Threatens Reprisals Against US-Backed Kurdish Militants
- Intensifies strikes after suicide bomb attack in Ankara
- Calls on US to stop working with Kurdish YPG militia
A fire raging at the Zarba oil facility following Turkish strikes in the Kurdish-controlled region of Hasake, on Oct. 5.
Photographer: Delil Souleiman/AFP/Getty Images
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday defended his decision to bomb US-backed Kurdish forces in Syria in an offensive that’s inflaming relations with the US.
Turkey intensified airstrikes and artillery shelling of YPG positions in reprisal for a suicide-bomb attack in the Turkish capital, claiming to have killed at least 58 militants in airstrikes on Friday, after the US shot down a Turkish drone that came too close to US troops in the area on Thursday. The death toll for Kurdish forces, announced by Turkish Defense Ministry, can’t be independently verified.