US Urges Turkey to Halt Syria Strikes

Turkey PM: Attacks Will Continue

by Jason Ditz,

As Turkish forces pounded both Syrian military targets and the Kurdish YPG, the US State Department has issued a statement calling for Turkey to de-escalate the situation and halt all future attacks, along with warning the Kurds not to seize any more territory.

The US position on the matter is a complicated one, asthey’ve openly argued with Turkey about the status of the Kurds, but are allied with Turkey as NATO members, and have been backing the YPG in a lot of its recent territorial gains.

And it’s unlikely to change any minds, with Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu telling German Chancellor Angela Merkel that the attacks are going to continue unconditionally, and that the attacks are a “necessary response” to the Kurdish aggression.

Davutoglu went on to insist that Turkey is launching the attacks in Syria for Europe’s sake, and that if the Kurds weren’t stopped hundreds of thousands of more refugees are going to be fleeing from the territory the Kurds are taking from ISIS and other Islamist groups.

http://news.antiwar.com/2016/02/14/us-urges-turkey-to-halt-syria-strikes/