Turkey rejects US claims to end fighting with Syrian Kurdish fighters Syrian War News

Ankara vows to continue operations in northern Syria as fears grow over an attack on the Kurdish-held city of Kobane.

Turkiye has hit back at claims by the United States that it has agreed to a ceasefire against the Kurds in northern Syria, and has vowed to continue working to remove them from the area – a military campaign launched after the fall of former Syrian President Bashar. al-Assad.

Turkey's top defense official on Thursday rejected claims made by US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller that the truce brokered by Washington between Turkey-backed rebels and the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) around the Syrian city of Manbij has been extended to its end. a week.

The SDF is backed by Washington in the fight against ISIL, but Ankara sees it as a “terrorist organization”, accusing it of links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a decade-long armed insurgency on Turkish soil.

On Thursday, a Turkish official described Miller's statement as a “slip of the tongue”, and said there was “no question” that Turkey would talk to the SDF, a group led by the People's Protection Units (YPG), which was seen. expansion of the PKK.

“Until the terrorist organization PKK/YPG disarms and its foreign fighters leave Syria, our preparations and measures will continue within the field of counter-terrorism,” the official said.

Turkiye considers the PKK, YPG and SDF to be “terrorist” groups. The US and Turkey's Western allies also list the PKK as “terrorists”, but not the YPG and the SDF.

Renewed fighting between Turkish-backed groups and Syrian Kurds comes more than a week after fighters led by the opposition Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) overthrew Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Reporting from Istanbul, Al Jazeera's Sinem Koseoglu said Turkiye believes it is up to the new Syrian administration to remove “foreign fighters” – a reference to PKK members from the YPG – from their territory.

“Turkiye considers all those PKK groups within the YPG as foreign fighters and the Turkish foreign minister said that these foreign fighters … within the opposition groups should leave Syria, especially since there is a new Syrian government and the establishment of a national army is expected,” he said.

If the new administration cannot remove foreign fighters from its territory, Turkey may intervene, he added.

The Turkish official's comments came as concerns grew about a possible Turkish attack on the Kurdish-held Syrian border town of Kobane, also known as Ain al-Arab, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) northeast of Manbij.

US President-elect Donald Trump described the ousting of al-Assad as an “unfriendly takeover” by Turkey, which has allied with several opposition groups that have led a lightning strike in Damascus.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan dismissed Trump's comments, saying it would be “a big mistake” to describe the current events in Syria as Turkey's takeover.