ISTANBUL -- Turkey's president warned on Friday that Ankara can go it alone in establishing a safe zone in northeastern Syria if talks with the United States on the issue fail to produce results.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would not "wait forever" to set up the so-called safe zone east of the Euphrates River in Syria. Turkey wants Syrian Kurdish militiamen to withdraw from there, and Erdogan has been seeking logistical and financial assistance from the U.S. in this.
Turkey has pushed for the creation of a 20-mile zone to serve as a buffer and ensure that the Syrian Kurdish militia -- the People's Protection Units, which Turkey considers to be a terrorist group for its ties to outlawed Kurdish rebels in Turkey -- is kept away from the Turkish border after U.S. troop withdraw from Syria. The details of the planned pullout of some 2,000 American troops remain unclear.
The Syrian Kurds have been a key U.S. ally. The People's Protection Units is the main component of the Syrian Democratic Forces, which rolled back the Islamic State group from wide parts of Syria with the help of the U.S.-led coalition.
Turkey has threatened to start a new military offensive against the Syrian Kurdish forces, while the U.S. has warned it would protect its Kurdish allies and cautioned Turkey against such an operation.
In a call earlier this month, Erdogan and President Donald Trump discussed the possibility of the safe zone in an apparent effort to reduce tensions. Turkish and U.S. defense officials have been assessing plans.
On Friday, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar met with Trump's envoy for Syria, James Jeffrey, and asked that the U.S. "end its relationship with the terror organization [People's Protection Units]" and ensure the group's withdrawal from Manbij, a key town in northern Syria.
Erdogan said Turkey must have control in the safe zone and added: "We are closed to all solution proposals other than this."
Erdogan earlier this week met Russian President Vladimir Putin as Moscow signaled it could be open for discussions about the Turkish push for carving out a safe zone. However, Russia argued for the Syrian government to take over areas currently controlled by the U.S. and Kurdish forces.
Also Friday, the U.S.-led coalition said it is investigating a potential incident involving civilian casualties in areas of fighting with the Islamic State in Syria's eastern province of Deir el-Zour bordering Iraq.
The statement said the incident happened Tuesday and that the coalition "takes all allegations of civilian casualties seriously and investigates each incident reported through any means."
Syrian state media outlets and opposition activists have reported several airstrikes that they blamed on the U.S.-led coalition, saying scores of people were killed over the past weeks.
The DeirEzzor 24, an activist collective, said a U.S.-led coalition airstrike killed several civilians as they were fleeing the eastern village of Baghouz near Iraq's border. The Syrian Democratic Forces later captured the village from the Islamic State group.
Information for this article was contributed by Bassem Mroue of The Associated Press.
A Section on 01/26/2019