To mesh Syria fight, U.S., Turkey, Russia brass talk

U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford (from left), Turkey’s Chief of Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar, and Russia’s Chief of Staff Gen.Valery Gerasimov attend a meeting Tuesday in Antalya, Turkey.
U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford (from left), Turkey’s Chief of Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar, and Russia’s Chief of Staff Gen.Valery Gerasimov attend a meeting Tuesday in Antalya, Turkey.

BEIRUT -- The top generals from Turkey, the United States and Russia met Tuesday in Turkey to discuss mutual concerns about military operations in northern Syria.

The meeting occurred as Russia's military announced a two-week cease-fire between rebels and the government in the suburbs of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

The meeting of Turkey's Gen. Hulusi Akar; Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff; and Gen. Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the Russian General Staff, was called to address reciprocal mistrust between Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces, U.S.-backed Kurdish forces, and Russian-allied Syrian government forces, fighting their way toward the Islamic State militant group's de facto capital, Raqqa.

Turkey, a NATO ally, views the Kurdish group that dominates the Syria Democratic Forces as terrorists and has threatened to drive them from the northern town of Manbij, which the Syria Democratic Forces captured from the militants last year with the aid of U.S.-led coalition airstrikes. Turkey and Syria support opposite sides in the Syrian civil war.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, addressing a campaign rally in the Turkish capital Ankara, reiterated his readiness to confront the Kurdish forces.

"We can clear Manbij together, then we can clear Raqqa together," he said.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said his country seeks a "trilateral mechanism" to clear the area of "terrorist groups." In Manbij, "the U.S. is raising a flag, Russia is raising a flag nearby, things have turned into a flag competition," Yildirim said in an interview with ATV television late Monday.

The U.S. has a few hundred special operations forces embedded with the Syria Democratic Forces and wants the alliance to lead the march on Raqqa. The Pentagon said Monday that U.S. forces have also taken up positions on the outskirts of Manbij to try to keep a lid on tensions.

Yildirim said the meetings would continue today.

"There is a need for an effective coordination in the efforts to clear Syria of all terror groups because so many countries are involved there," he told reporters. "If we cannot establish coordination, the risk of a conflict that we would not desire can emerge. That's the real aim of the meeting."

The Russian Defense Ministry said in a statement that the military chiefs talked about "the current situation in the fight against terrorist organizations in Syria in the context of raising the efficiency of confronting all terrorist organizations in the future."

It said they "underlined the importance of taking additional steps to prevent incidents during operations."

On Monday, Syria Democratic Forces fighters blocked the main road linking Raqqa with the eastern of Deir el-Zour, which is split between the Islamic State and the Syrian government. Syria Democratic Forces is now stationed 5 miles north of Raqqa.

Meanwhile, the Russian military said a cease-fire for the Eastern Ghouta region outside Damascus began Tuesday and will last until March 20, but activists reported a number of airstrikes and artillery strikes by government forces, killing two civilians.

Syria Civil Defense, a search-and-rescue group also known as the White Helmets, said rescuers dug up the bodies of a child and an adult from the rubble of the strikes on Harasta, inside the rebel-held Ghouta pocket.

Government forces have intensified their siege against the civilians and rebels there since February in an effort to secure a surrender that would see part of the population sent to exile. The U.N. has denounced other such arrangements as "forced displacement" and war crimes.

The Siege Watch monitoring group says about 400,000 people are trapped under the bombardment.

Information for this article was contributed by Philip Issa, Albert Aji and Vladimir Isachenkov of The Associated Press and by Henry Meyer and Taylan Bilgic of Bloomberg News.

A Section on 03/08/2017

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