US President Donald Trump has said Turkey must take over captured Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) terrorists, some of whom were refused entry by their European countries of origin.
“Fighting between various groups that has been going on for hundreds of years. USA should never have been in Middle East,” Trump tweeted on Wednesday, “Moved our 50 soldiers out. Turkey MUST take over captured [ISIL] fighters that Europe refused to have returned. The stupid endless wars, for us, are ending!”
Following a green light from Trump on Monday by announcing the pulling back of US soldiers from northern Syria, Turkey’s military is set to cross into the area “shortly,” the Turkish communications director said on Wednesday according to CNN, as part of an impending offensive to move US-backed Kurdish forces away from the Turkish border.
“Turkish military, together with the Free Syrian Army, will cross the Turkish-Syrian border shortly,” Fahrettin Altun, the Turkish government communications director, tweeted.
Altun added that the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria had two options: “They can defect, or we will have to stop them from disrupting our counter-ISIL efforts.”