President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to expand the offensive against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) to Manbij, east of Afrin

ONCUPINAR, Turkey – Turkey on Saturday, January 27, urged the United States to withdraw personnel from a Kurdish-held town in northern Syria after Washington told Ankara it would stop arming a Syrian Kurdish militia that Turkey is fighting.

As Turkey's offensive in Syria entered its second week with new air strikes and artillery, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said it was "necessary for them (US) to immediately withdraw from Manbij", where Washington has a military presence.

Turkey launched operation "Olive Branch" on January 20 against the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in its western enclave of Afrin, supporting Syrian opposition fighters with ground troops and air strikes.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to expand the offensive against the YPG to Manbij, east of Afrin.

Relations between NATO allies Ankara and Washington have worsened since Turkey launched an operation, with the United States urging restraint and fearing an impact on the fight against the Islamic State (IS or ISIS) extremist group.

One of the issues marring relations was the US supplying the YPG militia – which has spearheaded the anti-jihadist fight – with arms since last year in battles against IS.

Manbij itself was retaken from IS by the Kurdish-led, US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces in 2016 as part of a push that would later recapture the city of Raqa from the jihadists.

The Turkish presidency said US National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster "confirmed" to Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin in a phone call late Friday that Washington would no longer "give weapons to the YPG".

Ankara says the YPG is a "terrorist" offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which is proscribed as a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.

"God willing we will crush them (terror groups) like a steam roller," Erdogan said Saturday during a speech in Istanbul.

The offensive came after the US-led coalition fighting IS announced this month that it is working to create a 30,000-strong border security force in northern Syria.

Erdogan at the time reacted strongly to the force which would be composed partly of YPG fighters, describing it as an "army of terror".

"The US must cut its ties with a terror organization. It must take back the weapons it has given," Cavusoglu said, adding that Turkey "now wanted to see concrete steps taken" beyond verbal promises.

During their call, McMaster and Kalin cited Turkey's "legitimate security concerns" and agreed to coordinate closely in order to prevent misunderstandings.

The call came just days after Washington and Ankara bitterly contested each other's accounts of a telephone conversation between Erdogan and US President Donald Trump.

A White House statement said Trump urged Turkey to "limit its military actions", but a Turkish official said this was not an accurate reflection of the leaders' call.

There have been expressions of concern over the offensive from other Western allies including the European Union, France and Germany.

German officials also warned against tensions between the country's huge Kurdish and Turkish communities as hundreds of Kurds took to the streets of Cologne Saturday in protest over the military operation.

Germany is home to some one million Kurds and 3 million people of Turkish origin.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group told Agence France-Presse that the fighting was concentrated in the northwest part of Afrin region.

Turkish forces and allied Syrian rebels had taken a village and were making progress, albeit "slowly because of bad weather", Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

There were also continued air strikes and artillery fire Saturday, he added.

The Turkish military said "at least 394 terrorist organisation members were neutralised" in the operation thus far.

It was not possible to independently verify the toll.

The Observatory said that 111 Ankara-backed rebels and Kurdish fighters have been killed between both sides since last Saturday.

It said 38 civilians have been killed, mainly as a result of Turkish shelling, but Ankara strongly rejects such claims.

Turkey's AFAD emergencies agency head Mehmet Gulluoglu told reporters at the Oncupinar border crossing in the Kilis province that they were making plans for a camp to be established in the Syrian town of Azaz held by Ankara-backed rebels "in the face of a possible refugee influx from Afrin". – Rappler.com</s>Health workers in the northern Syrian town of Afrin fear that a Turkish offensive on the Kurdish-held enclave will lead to a humanitarian "tragedy" as medicines run short and the number of civilian casualties keeps rising.

"Medication and humanitarian aid necessary to help civilians will soon run out," said Khalil Sabri Ahmed, head of the main hospital in Afrin which has received dozens of civilian casualties in the past week.

Turkey launched a major air and ground operation in northern Syria on January 20 in a bid to oust a US-allied militia, the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) which it considers a terror group.

At Afrin's main hospital, the mood is sombre, even if Christmas decorations still adorn some walls, said a reporter who works with AFP and toured the facility.

A man, his head covered in bandages and with a black eye, flashed a V for victory sign, in an effort to put a brave face to his condition after sustaining injuries in a Turkish bombardment.

Nearby a small girl lay on a metal cot, with a cast on one foot and her arm hooked up to an intravenous drip.

Journalists tried to get her to tell her story on camera but she retreated into silence, her eyes filled with sadness and staring into empty space.

A patient wearing a thick sweater had dozed off and a nurse was taking the blood pressure of a white-haired, dour-looking elderly man.

The corridors were silent and everyone looked gloomy.

For the past week, villages and towns around Afrin on the Syrian-Turkish border have come under intense Turkish bombardment from the air and ground.

Dozens of civilians have been wounded and serious cases have been taken to Afrin's main hospital.

"Civilians are those bearing the brunt," said hospital manager Ahmed.

According to Britain-based monitor, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, at least 36 civilians have been killed since Turkey launched operation "Olive Branch".

Health workers have set up "medical shelters" close to the border to provide first-aid to the wounded because hospitals and clinics in the area have also been hit, said Ahmed.

But there is growing fear amongst health officials that a sustained military campaign will spark a "humanitarian tragedy" for civilians in the Afrin region, as medication and supplies dwindle.

Afrin's geographical location does not help.

Turkey holds the borders to the north and west of Afrin while Syrian pro-Ankara rebels control areas to the south and east.

There is only one road in and out of the hilly enclave, leading to Syrian second city Aleppo, and that is controlled by anti-government rebels.

"Our capacities are weak because of this siege and if the pressure increases it will be very difficult to hold out," said Ahmed.

He urged international organisations to dispatch aid to Afrin and press for an end to Turkey's "aggression".

The head of the Kurdish Red Crescent, Nouri Sheikh Qanbar, echoed his plea saying: "We hope that international organisations will launch humanitarian initiatives to send us aid."

And children are already paying a heavy price in Afrin, with at least 11 killed since the Turkish offensive began, said the UN children's agency UNICEF in a statement.

"Violence is reported to be so intense that families are confined to the basements of their buildings. The majority of shops are closed and UNICEF-supported child protection services, including a child-friendly space and psychosocial support activities, had to be suspended," it said.

"Wars have laws and these laws are being broken every single day in Syria," said UNICEF.

The United Nations has said around 5,000 people have been displaced by the offensive.

Outside morgues in Afrin, relatives of civilians killed in the violence gather to mourn as bodies are laid out.

A man whose son was killed looked on with teary eyes, as a group of tearful women grieved for the loss of a relative. "Don't cry, they are martyrs who have preceded us to heaven," he said.</s>ANKARA/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States has pledged to stop supplying weapons to a Kurdish militia in Syria, Turkey said on Saturday, calling on Washington to immediately remove its troops from a Syrian town of Manbij that Turkish forces plan to target.

Turkey's air and ground offensive in northwest Syria's Afrin region against the Kurdish YPG militia has opened a new front in the seven-year, multi-sided Syrian civil war and strained ties with NATO ally Washington.

Ankara views the YPG as terrorists and as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and has been infuriated by U.S. support, including arms and training, for the militia. The Kurdish fighters have played a prominent role in U.S.-led efforts to combat the hardline Islamic State in Syria.

Since the start of the eight-day-old incursion, dubbed "Operation Olive Branch" by Ankara, President Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkish forces would push east towards the town of Manbij, potentially putting them in confrontation with U.S. troops deployed there.

U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster told Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, in a telephone call that the United States would no longer provide weapons to the YPG, the Turkish presidency said on Saturday.

"It was emphasised that Turkey's legitimate security concerns must be paid attention to. It was agreed that close coordination would be carried out in order to avoid misunderstandings," it said.

The agreement is likely to be seen by Ankara as a substantial diplomatic victory from the incursion, where Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies appear to have made modest advances, as heavy rain and poor weather have hampered air strikes and progress on the ground.

Turkey's foreign minister said the United States needed to follow up its promise with concrete action, including the immediate withdrawal of its troops from the vicinity of Manbij.

"The United States needs to break its link with (the) terrorist organisation and make them drop their weapons completely. They need to collect the weapons they gave, they need to withdraw from Manbij immediately," Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters on Saturday.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment about ending arms to the YPG or exiting Manbij.

Erdogan said this week that Turkish forces would sweep Kurdish fighters from the length of Syrian border and could push all the way east to the frontier with Iraq, a move that would risk a possible confrontation with U.S. forces allied to the Kurds.

Any drive by Turkish forces toward Manbij, part of Kurdish-held territory some 100 km (60 miles) east of Afrin, could also threaten U.S. efforts to stabilize northern Syria. The United States has about 2,000 troops in Syria, officially as part of the international coalition against Islamic State.

U.S. forces were deployed in and around Manbij to deter Turkish and U.S.-backed rebels from attacking each other and have also carried out training missions in the area.

A senior official for the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Syrian fighters spearheaded by the Kurdish YPG, said any wider Turkish assault would face an "appropriate response".

Redur Xelil also said in an interview that he was sure the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, which has backed the SDF in its battle against the jihadists, was trying to put pressure on Turkey to limit its offensive.

Turkey and its Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel allies have killed a total of 394 militants since the incursion began, Erdogan said on Saturday. Turkey and the FSA rebel factions have together lost 20 people he said, without giving a breakdown.

The SDF has accused Turkey of exaggerating the number of Kurdish fighters it had killed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitoring group, said that 36 civilians in Afrin, including 10 children, have died so far.

A total of 59 YPG fighters and at least 69 fighters from the Turkey-backed FSA have died in clashed, the Observatory said. Seven Turkish soldiers have been killed and another seven are missing, it said.</s>ANKARA, Turkey >> Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Friday to expand Ankara’s operation in a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria eastward, toward the frontier with Iraq.

His comments, during an address to local leaders of his ruling-party in Ankara, appeared to be in defiance of the United States, which has urged Turkey to keep its campaign in Syria “limited in scope and duration” and to focus on ending the war.

Erdogan said the Turkish forces’ push into Afrin would stretch further east, to the Syrian Kurdish town of Manbij, and toward the border with Iraq “until no terrorist is left.”

Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish forces, known as the People’s Protection Units or YPG, as a terrorist group because of their purported links to Kurdish insurgents within Turkey’s own border. Manbij is held by the Syrian Democratic Forces, which is dominated by the YPG. U.S. troops are not present in Afrin but are embedded with the SDF in other parts of Syria, where they are working to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State group.

“We will clear Manbij of terrorists ... No one should be disturbed by this because the real owners of Manbij are not these terrorists, they are our Arab brothers,” Erdogan said. “From Manbij, we will continue our struggle up to the border with Iraq, until no terrorist is left.”

Ankara’s push into Manbj would put Turkish troops in proximity to American soldiers there.

Erdogan remarks came on the seventh day of the Turkish incursion into Afrin, which started last Saturday.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s Health Minister Ahmet Demircan said Friday the operation into Afrin had led to 14 deaths on the Turkish side. Three Turkish soldiers and 11 Syrian opposition fighters allied with them were killed in fighting since Jan. 20, he said. Some 130 others were wounded.

The SDF said the first week of Turkey’s incursion had left more than a 100 civilians and fighters dead. The group said in a statement Friday that among the dead are 59 civilians and 43 fighters, including eight women fighters. At least 134 civilians were wounded in the weeklong clashes, it added.

Turkey’s military said at least 343 “terrorists” have been “neutralized” during the campaign, a figure the Syrian Kurdish dispute.

In his speech, Erdogan slammed the U.S. alliance with the Kurdish forces in Manbij and other parts of Syria.

“Our greatest sadness is to see these terrorist organizations run wild holding U.S. flags in this region,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan said President Donald Trump asked him “not to criticize us so much” during their telephone call on Wednesday.

“Okay,” said Erdogan, quoting what he allegedly told Trump in the conversation. “But how can a strategic partner do such a thing to its strategic partner?”

Erdogan also accused the Syrian Kurdish militia of using civilians as human shields in Afrin to try and slow down the advance of the Turkish forces and of the Turkish-backed Syrian opposition fighters.

He also criticized calls by U.S. and other allies for a quick resolution of Turkey’s incursion, saying military interventions in places in Afghanistan and Iraq lasted for several years.

Late Thursday, the Pentagon described Turkey’s military operations in Afrin as not helpful and threatening to damage the ongoing fight against Islamic State militants in Syria.

Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. said U.S. military commanders continue to talk with Turkey about the establishment of some type of safe zone along the Turkey-Syria border. He said it was “simply an idea floating around right now” and there has been no decision yet.

McKenzie said the U.S. is clearly tracking movement by Turkey but downplayed the chances of American forces being threatened in the vicinity of the town of Manbij.

Associated Press Writer Bassem Mroue in Beirut contributed to this report.</s>ANKARA, Turkey >> Turkey’s president on Wednesday vowed to expand Ankara’s operation against Kurdish forces in northern Syria beyond the enclave of Afrin and toward the town of Manbij, which would bring Turkish troops and their Syrian allies closer to U.S. forces supporting the Kurds against the Islamic State group.

A senior U.S. official, meanwhile, said Washington is concerned that Turkey’s military offensive against Afrin could distract from the fight against IS and be exploited by extremists to re-supply or create safe havens.

The official told reporters in Ankara on Wednesday that the Syrian Kurdish fighters in Afrin are not part of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which drove IS from much of northeastern Syria with the help of the U.S.-led coalition.

Regarding threats to expand the offensive to Manbij, the official said Washington’s “number one concern is the safety and security of troops in the vicinity.” U.S. forces are based in Kurdish-held parts of northeastern Syria, including near Manbij, but not in or near Afrin.

Turkey launched an incursion Saturday into Afrin, which is controlled by a Kurdish militia known as the People’s Defense Units, or YPG. Ankara views the YPG as an extension of the Kurdish insurgency in Turkey. The YPG forms the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces.

Any move toward Manbij would bring NATO member Turkey and its Syrian allies closer to U.S. forces, threatening friction. The U.S. has urged Turkey to exercise restraint.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to “foil games along our borders starting from Manbij.”

“We will clean our region from this trouble completely,” he told officials at a meeting in Ankara. “This operation will continue until the last member of the terror organization is neutralized.”

Syrian Kurdish forces captured Manbij, which is west of the Euphrates River, from IS in 2016 with the help of the U.S.-led coalition. Turkey has long demanded that the Kurdish fighters withdraw to the eastern bank of the river, and U.S. forces have patrolled the area to reduce tensions.

The head of the Kurdish-controlled Manbij military council, Shervan Darwish, said his forces are prepared for a potential Turkish advance. He said the United States helped Kurdish fighters to liberate Manbij and has promised to keep defending it.

“Their presence has been to ensure the stability in Manbij,” he said of U.S. troops. “Their patrols are continuing and also air patrols. They are present with us on the front lines.”

The advancing Turkish troops are facing stiff resistance in Afrin. Activists and Kurdish officials say airstrikes are still raining down on several parts of the district, which borders Turkey. On Wednesday, Kurdish officials said airstrikes hit in the vicinity of the Nissan 17 Dam, which provides power and water to the area, without damaging it.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that monitors the civil war, reported airstrikes in nearly 20 villages. The YPG said it infiltrated behind Turkish lines east of Afrin and targeted their bases.

The United Nations says an estimated 5,000 people have been displaced inside the encircled enclave, and that Kurdish forces are not allowing civilians to leave.

Erdogan said Turkish troops and allied fighters have killed at least 268 Syrian Kurdish fighters since the operation began, a number disputed by Kurdish officials and a war monitoring group. He said Turkish troops have suffered seven or eight losses.

At least 42 Kurdish fighters have been killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Another 48 Syrian fighters fighting alongside the Turkish military against the YPG were also killed, said the Observatory.

At least 27 civilians have been killed in the fighting in Afrin, mainly in Turkish airstrikes, according to the Observatory.

In Turkey, two people were killed and 11 were hurt on Wednesday evening after two rockets fired from inside Syria hit a mosque and a home in the border town of Kilis, said local governor Mehmet Tekinarslan.

Turkish TV images showed the rocket that struck the mosque had pierced through its dome. The private NTV station showed people inside the mosque frantically trying to clear the rubble.

Turkey says it wants to create a 20-mile deep “secure zone” in Afrin. Erdogan said the operation would allow Syrian refugees to return home. Turkey is home to more than 3.4 million Syrian refugees.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday that the fighting “disrupts what was a relatively stable area of Syria” and “distracts from the international efforts to ensure the defeat of ISIS,” using another acronym for the extremist group.

Addressing Turkish complaints that the United States has not kept to its promises to take back weapons supplied to the Syrian Kurdish fighters, the U.S. official in Ankara said Washington intended to “fulfil the commitment,” without providing a time frame.

A second U.S. official denied Turkish government claims the U.S. had delivered thousands of trucks of weapons to the Syrian Kurdish forces, saying the bulk of the supplies went to U.S. forces and also included ammunition, food and humanitarian supplies.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

IS has been driven from nearly all the territory it once controlled in Syria and neighboring Iraq, but the extremist group has proven resilient after past defeats, and is still launching insurgent-style attacks.

Russia, meanwhile, accused the United States of promoting unverified reports about chemical weapons attacks in Syria in order to cloud Moscow’s latest peace initiative, while the Syrian government dismissed the reports as “lies.”

The United States and 28 other countries are launching a new plan to better identify and punish anyone who uses chemical weapons, amid reports of a suspected gas attack in rebel-held suburbs of Damascus earlier this week.

In an interview with the Interfax news agency, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov accused the U.S. of promoting “rigged, unverified reports” to hamper Russian peace efforts.

Russia is hosting peace talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi next week that some Syrian opposition figures said will run counter to U.N. peace initiatives.

The U.S. and Russia reached an agreement in 2013 to remove all chemical weapons from Syria, but there have been several reported chemical attacks since then, including one last year that led President Donald Trump to order a retaliatory missile attack on a Syrian air base.

Vasilyeva reported from Moscow. Associated Press writer Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report.</s>Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Friday to expand Ankara’s operation in a Kurdish enclave in northern Syria eastward, toward the border with Iraq.

In Vienna, the Syrian opposition and Russia agreed to a ceasefire to halt the fighting over the besieged eastern Ghouta suburbs of Damascus, an area the UN has called the “epicentre of suffering” in the war-torn country.

The agreement, confirmed to The Associated Press by opposition official Ahmad Ramadan, is contingent on Russia compelling the government to allow aid flow to the suburbs, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group. Russia is a key ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Rebels gave the government 24 hours to comply, said Ammar Hassan, spokesman for the Islam Army, one of the factions fighting inside the area. The government did not sign the agreement, said opposition adviser Omar Kouch.

The eastern Ghouta area has seen more than two months of violent fighting since rebels tried to ease a choking government blockade that has depleted food and medical supplies.

The UN reported in November that child malnutrition in eastern Ghouta was at the worst ever recorded throughout the seven years of civil war. It estimates there are around 400,000 people trapped under the government’s siege.

Conditions deteriorated precipitously after pro-government forces choked off the last smuggling tunnels leading to the opposition-held suburbs in May.

A “de-escalation” agreement brokered by Russia, Iran, and Turkey in August failed to bring any relief. The government and rebels eased up on their fighting but the government refused to allow aid into eastern Ghouta contravening the agreement.

Fighting erupted again in November, leading the government to pound the enclave with airstrikes and artillery fire without distinguishing between civilian and military targets. Rebels have responded with waves of shelling on Damascus. At least 286 civilians have been killed in the crossfire in the last month alone, according to figures from the Observatory.

The agreement, the latest in a long line of short-lived truces for Syria, was announced on the second and last day of a UN-mediated round of peace talks in the Austrian capital. Another round, mediated by Russia, starts in Sochi on Monday.

‘No one should be disturbed by this’

Erdogan said the Turkish forces’ push into Afrin would stretch further east, to the Syrian Kurdish town of Manbij, and toward the border with Iraq “until no terrorist is left.”

Erdogan’s latest comments appeared to be in defiance of the United States, which has urged Turkey to keep its campaign in Syria “limited in scope and duration” and to focus on ending the war.

Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish forces, known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, to be a terrorist group because of their purported links to Kurdish insurgents within Turkey’s own border.

Manbij is held by the Syrian Democratic Forces, which is dominated by the YPG. U.S. troops are not present in Afrin but are embedded with the SDF in other parts of Syria, where they are working to prevent a resurgence of the Islamic State group.

“We will clear Manbij of terrorists …. No one should be disturbed by this, because the real owners of Manbij are not these terrorists, they are our Arab brothers,” Erdogan said, “From Manbij, we will continue our struggle up to the border with Iraq, until no terrorist is left.”

Ankara’s push into Manbij would put Turkish troops in proximity to U.S. soldiers there.

Erdogan remarks came on the seventh day of the Turkish incursion into Afrin, which started last Saturday.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s Health Minister Ahmet Demircan said Friday that the operation into Afrin had led to 14 deaths on the Turkish side. Three Turkish soldiers and 11 Syrian opposition fighters allied with them were killed in fighting since Jan. 20, he said. Some 130 others were wounded.

The SDF said the first week of Turkey’s incursion had left more than 100 civilians and fighters dead. The group said in a statement Friday that among the dead are 59 civilians and 43 fighters, including eight women fighters. At least 134 civilians were wounded in the weeklong clashes, it added.

Turkey’s military said at least 343 “terrorists” have been “neutralized” during the campaign, a figure the Syrian Kurdish militia dispute.

In his speech, Erdogan slammed the U.S. alliance with the Kurdish forces in Manbij and other parts of Syria.

“Our greatest sadness is to see these terrorist organizations run wild holding U.S. flags in this region,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan said President Donald Trump asked him “not to criticize us so much” during their telephone call on Wednesday.

“Okay,” said Erdogan, citing what he allegedly told Trump in the conversation. “But how can a strategic partner do such a thing to its strategic partner?”

Erdogan also accused the Syrian Kurdish militia of using civilians as human shields in Afrin to try and slow down the advance of the Turkish forces and of the Turkish-backed Syrian opposition fighters.

He also criticized calls by U.S. and other allies for a quick resolution of Turkey’s incursion, saying military interventions in places in Afghanistan and Iraq lasted for several years.

Late Thursday, the Pentagon described Turkey’s military operations in Afrin as not helpful and threatening to damage the ongoing fight against Islamic State militants in Syria.

Joint Staff Director Lt. Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. said the U.S. is clearly tracking movement by Turkey but downplayed the chances of American forces being threatened in the vicinity of the town of Manbij.</s>ANKARA, Turkey >> Turkey’s president on Wednesday vowed to expand Ankara’s operation against Kurdish forces in northern Syria beyond the enclave of Afrin and toward the town of Manbij, which would bring Turkish troops and their Syrian allies closer to U.S. forces supporting the Kurds against the Islamic State group.

A senior U.S. official, meanwhile, said Washington is concerned that Turkey’s military offensive against Afrin could distract from the fight against IS and be exploited by extremists to re-supply or create safe havens.

The official told reporters in Ankara on Wednesday that the Syrian Kurdish fighters in Afrin are not part of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which drove IS from much of northeastern Syria with the help of the U.S.-led coalition.

Regarding threats to expand the offensive to Manbij, the official said Washington’s “number one concern is the safety and security of troops in the vicinity.” U.S. forces are based in Kurdish-held parts of northeastern Syria, including near Manbij, but not in or near Afrin.

Turkey launched an incursion Saturday into Afrin, which is controlled by a Kurdish militia known as the People’s Defense Units, or YPG. Ankara views the YPG as an extension of the Kurdish insurgency in Turkey. The YPG forms the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces.

Any move toward Manbij would bring NATO member Turkey and its Syrian allies closer to U.S. forces, threatening friction. The U.S. has urged Turkey to exercise restraint.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed to “foil games along our borders starting from Manbij.”

“We will clean our region from this trouble completely,” he told officials at a meeting in Ankara. “This operation will continue until the last member of the terror organization is neutralized.”

Syrian Kurdish forces captured Manbij, which is west of the Euphrates River, from IS in 2016 with the help of the U.S.-led coalition. Turkey has long demanded that the Kurdish fighters withdraw to the eastern bank of the river, and U.S. forces have patrolled the area to reduce tensions.

The head of the Kurdish-controlled Manbij military council, Shervan Darwish, said his forces are prepared for a potential Turkish advance. He said the United States helped Kurdish fighters to liberate Manbij and has promised to keep defending it.

“Their presence has been to ensure the stability in Manbij,” he said of U.S. troops. “Their patrols are continuing and also air patrols. They are present with us on the front lines.”

The advancing Turkish troops are facing stiff resistance in Afrin. Activists and Kurdish officials say airstrikes are still raining down on several parts of the district, which borders Turkey. On Wednesday, Kurdish officials said airstrikes hit in the vicinity of the Nissan 17 Dam, which provides power and water to the area, without damaging it.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based group that monitors the civil war, reported airstrikes in nearly 20 villages. The YPG said it infiltrated behind Turkish lines east of Afrin and targeted their bases.

The United Nations says an estimated 5,000 people have been displaced inside the encircled enclave, and that Kurdish forces are not allowing civilians to leave.

Erdogan said Turkish troops and allied fighters have killed at least 268 Syrian Kurdish fighters since the operation began, a number disputed by Kurdish officials and a war monitoring group. He said Turkish troops have suffered seven or eight losses.

At least 42 Kurdish fighters have been killed, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Another 48 Syrian fighters fighting alongside the Turkish military against the YPG were also killed, said the Observatory.

At least 27 civilians have been killed in the fighting in Afrin, mainly in Turkish airstrikes, according to the Observatory.

In Turkey, two people were killed and 11 were hurt on Wednesday evening after two rockets fired from inside Syria hit a mosque and a home in the border town of Kilis, said local governor Mehmet Tekinarslan.

Turkish TV images showed the rocket that struck the mosque had pierced through its dome. The private NTV station showed people inside the mosque frantically trying to clear the rubble.

Turkey says it wants to create a 20-mile deep “secure zone” in Afrin. Erdogan said the operation would allow Syrian refugees to return home. Turkey is home to more than 3.4 million Syrian refugees.

U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said Tuesday that the fighting “disrupts what was a relatively stable area of Syria” and “distracts from the international efforts to ensure the defeat of ISIS,” using another acronym for the extremist group.

Addressing Turkish complaints that the United States has not kept to its promises to take back weapons supplied to the Syrian Kurdish fighters, the U.S. official in Ankara said Washington intended to “fulfil the commitment,” without providing a time frame.

A second U.S. official denied Turkish government claims the U.S. had delivered thousands of trucks of weapons to the Syrian Kurdish forces, saying the bulk of the supplies went to U.S. forces and also included ammunition, food and humanitarian supplies.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

IS has been driven from nearly all the territory it once controlled in Syria and neighboring Iraq, but the extremist group has proven resilient after past defeats, and is still launching insurgent-style attacks.

Russia, meanwhile, accused the United States of promoting unverified reports about chemical weapons attacks in Syria in order to cloud Moscow’s latest peace initiative, while the Syrian government dismissed the reports as “lies.”

The United States and 28 other countries are launching a new plan to better identify and punish anyone who uses chemical weapons, amid reports of a suspected gas attack in rebel-held suburbs of Damascus earlier this week.

In an interview with the Interfax news agency, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov accused the U.S. of promoting “rigged, unverified reports” to hamper Russian peace efforts.

Russia is hosting peace talks in the Black Sea resort of Sochi next week that some Syrian opposition figures said will run counter to U.N. peace initiatives.

The U.S. and Russia reached an agreement in 2013 to remove all chemical weapons from Syria, but there have been several reported chemical attacks since then, including one last year that led President Donald Trump to order a retaliatory missile attack on a Syrian air base.

Vasilyeva reported from Moscow. Associated Press writer Sarah El Deeb in Beirut contributed to this report.</s>A Turkish official said anyone supporting the YPG militia will become "a target", a warning likely to rile the United States as its forces work alongside the Kurdish armed group on the ground in northern Syria.

Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag's comments on Thursday came after Turkey threatened to attack the town of Manbij as part of its cross-border operation against the Afrin region, controlled by the Kurdish fighters.

The US has about 2,000 soldiers based in Manbij - about 100km east of Afrin - who work with the YPG in fighting Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

If the US wants to "avoid a confrontation with Turkey - which neither they nor Turkey want - the way to this is clear: they must cut support given to terrorists", Bozdag told Turkish broadcaster A Haber.

"Those who support the terrorist organisation will become a target in this battle. The United States needs to review its soldiers and elements giving support to terrorists on the ground in such a way as to avoid a confrontation with Turkey," he said.

There was no immediate response from the US to Bozdag's comments on Thursday.

The US military coalition operating in Manbij on Wednesday said American soldiers there have the right to defend themselves against any attack.

"The coalition forces that are in that area have an inherent right to defend themselves and will do so if necessary," spokesman Colonel Ryan Dillon said.

Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said on Thursday she had seen media reports about Turkey asking the US to move troops from Manbij, but didn't know if that was under consideration.

Turkey launched its offensive against the YPG in Afrin a week ago. The military said in a statement it "neutralised" more than 300 fighters in northern Syria since the operation began.

Turkey sees the YPG - trained, armed and supported by the US to fight against ISIL - as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a bloody, decades-long uprising in the country.

"Turkey is one of the NATO nations that suffer the most from terrorism," Stoltenberg said in a statement on Thursday.

"All nations have the right to defend themselves, but this has to be done in a proportionate and measured way."

Meanwhile, Afrin's Kurdish-run administration called on Syria's government to defend the region against Turkey's offensive.

"We call on the Syrian state to carry out its sovereign obligations towards Afrin and protect its borders with Turkey from attacks of the Turkish occupier … and deploy its Syrian armed forces to secure the borders of the Afrin area," it said in a statement on its website.

Observers say Turkey's operation has further complicated Syria's seven-year war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people, with millions fleeing the country.</s>BEIRUT (AP) — The Latest on the conflict in Syria (all times local):

The Turkish military has said that two Turkish soldiers and two allied Syrian opposition fighters were killed in a military offensive against a Kurdish-held enclave in northern Syria.

The military statement published late Saturday said the men were killed in clashes with Syrian Kurdish YPG and the Islamic State group. Eleven soldiers and four Syrian fighters were injured.

Turkey has been battling the YPG, which it deems a terror organization, to clear Afrin in northern Syria of the group. There is no IS presence there.

According to the statement, 447 "terrorists" were "neutralized" since the beginning of the week-long operation codenamed Olive Branch. The figure cannot independently be verified because of access restrictions to the battleground.

In total, five Turkish soldiers have been killed since Jan. 20.

Several thousand people have rallied in Paris to support Turkey's Kurds and protest a Turkish military incursion into a Kurdish-controlled enclave in Syria.

Left-wing activists joined Kurdish opposition groups in Saturday's demonstration at the Place de la Republique in eastern Paris. Some waved banners denouncing Turkey's government and backing the U.S.-supported Kurdish militia, the YPG.

The demonstrators urged French and other Western authorities to take a tougher stand against the Turkish campaign. France's government has urged restraint but the protesters say that's not enough.

Violence has escalated in northern Syria in recent days as Turkish forces have targeted the city of Afrin and threatened to push further east toward the border with Iraq. Turkey says it is fighting extremists threatening regional stability.

Turkey's official news agency says a rocket fired from northern Syria has hit a house in the border province of Kilis, injuring two people.

The Anadolu news agency said the rocket was launched from the Afrin region Saturday afternoon and targeted the city center. The Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG, control the enclave in northern Syria.

The private Dogan news agency said the rocket did not explode.

Turkey began a military operation on Jan. 20 against the YPG, which it deems a terror group. Since then, multiple rocket attacks have killed three people — two of them Syrian refugees — and wounded more than 20 others.

The Turkish military's chief of staff and a deputy prime minister visited the scene of the most recent rocket attack.

Syria's main opposition negotiating body said Saturday it will boycott a peace conference in Russia next week, saying it would not lead to a genuine peace track that could end the country's seven-year war.

The High Negotiations Committee announced the boycott of the Russia-backed conference in Sochi in a tweet Sunday night after a vote held in Vienna, Austria, where a U.N.-led conference was being held.

The two-day conference ended, as in many previous rounds, with accusations hurled back and forth between the two sides in comments to the press.

"The (Syrian) regime doesn't believe in a political solution and it will not believe in the future ... it only believes in the military option," Syrian opposition leader Naser al-Hariri said from Vienna on Saturday.

Russia has been steering a separate negotiating track in Astana, and now in the Black Sea resort of Sochi where the conference is scheduled to be held on Monday with the participation of some 1,600 representatives of the Syrian government and opposition.

Copyright 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.</s>ANKARA/BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States has pledged to stop supplying weapons to a Kurdish militia in Syria, Turkey said on Saturday, calling on Washington to immediately remove its troops from a Syrian town of Manbij that Turkish forces plan to target.

Turkey's air and ground offensive in northwest Syria's Afrin region against the Kurdish YPG militia has opened a new front in the seven-year, multi-sided Syrian civil war and strained ties with NATO ally Washington.

Ankara views the YPG as terrorists and as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and has been infuriated by U.S. support, including arms and training, for the militia. The Kurdish fighters have played a prominent role in U.S.-led efforts to combat the hardline Islamic State in Syria.

Since the start of the eight-day-old incursion, dubbed "Operation Olive Branch" by Ankara, President Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkish forces would push east towards the town of Manbij, potentially putting them in confrontation with U.S. troops deployed there.

U.S. National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster told Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, in a telephone call that the United States would no longer provide weapons to the YPG, the Turkish presidency said on Saturday.

"It was emphasised that Turkey's legitimate security concerns must be paid attention to. It was agreed that close coordination would be carried out in order to avoid misunderstandings," it said.

The agreement is likely to be seen by Ankara as a substantial diplomatic victory from the incursion, where Turkish troops and their Syrian rebel allies appear to have made modest advances, as heavy rain and poor weather have hampered air strikes and progress on the ground.

Turkey's foreign minister said the United States needed to follow up its promise with concrete action, including the immediate withdrawal of its troops from the vicinity of Manbij.

"The United States needs to break its link with (the) terrorist organisation and make them drop their weapons completely. They need to collect the weapons they gave, they need to withdraw from Manbij immediately," Mevlut Cavusoglu told reporters on Saturday.

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment about ending arms to the YPG or exiting Manbij.

Erdogan said this week that Turkish forces would sweep Kurdish fighters from the length of Syrian border and could push all the way east to the frontier with Iraq, a move that would risk a possible confrontation with U.S. forces allied to the Kurds.

Any drive by Turkish forces toward Manbij, part of Kurdish-held territory some 100 km (60 miles) east of Afrin, could also threaten U.S. efforts to stabilize northern Syria. The United States has about 2,000 troops in Syria, officially as part of the international coalition against Islamic State.

U.S. forces were deployed in and around Manbij to deter Turkish and U.S.-backed rebels from attacking each other and have also carried out training missions in the area.

A senior official for the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Syrian fighters spearheaded by the Kurdish YPG, said any wider Turkish assault would face an "appropriate response".

Redur Xelil also said in an interview that he was sure the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State, which has backed the SDF in its battle against the jihadists, was trying to put pressure on Turkey to limit its offensive.

Turkey and its Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel allies have killed a total of 394 militants since the incursion began, Erdogan said on Saturday. Turkey and the FSA rebel factions have together lost 20 people he said, without giving a breakdown.

The SDF has accused Turkey of exaggerating the number of Kurdish fighters it had killed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitoring group, said that 36 civilians in Afrin, including 10 children, have died so far.

A total of 59 YPG fighters and at least 69 fighters from the Turkey-backed FSA have died in clashed, the Observatory said. Seven Turkish soldiers have been killed and another seven are missing, it said.
President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan says the Afrin offensive, as announced, is now to turn east, towards Manbij and the border with Iraq.