BEIRUT (AP) - Russia, Turkey and the Syrian government on Monday denounced the U.S.-led coalition plans to form a Kurdish-led border force to secure the areas along Syria's international border to the north with Turkey and to the east, with Iraq.

The coalition told The Associated Press Monday that 230 new cadets have already been recruited to the force, which is anticipated to reach 30,000 troops in the next several years.

According to the coalition, the core of the force is to be made up of fighters from the existing Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the coalition's main ally in the fight against Islamic State militants. The SDF currently controls nearly 25 percent of Syrian territory in the north and east.

"A strong border security force will prohibit (IS) freedom of movement and deny the transportation of illicit materials," the coalition said in a statement." This will enable the Syrian people to establish effective local, representative governance and reclaim their land."

Turkey has already protested the new force, which adds another bump in the troubled relations between Washington and Ankara over Syria.

On Monday, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said the United States is building "a terrorist army under the guise of the Syrian Border Security force." Bozdag also tweeted that Washington is "playing with fire."

Turkey has been against U.S. support of the dominant Kurdish militia in Syria, which forms the backbone of the SDF, calling it an extension of its own insurgent group. Ankara sent troops into Syria in 2016 to prevent Syrian Kurdish fighters from forming a contiguous entity along its border. It has also supported rival Syrian rebels and independently took part in the effort to clear IS militants from Syria, where the terrain has been crowded with rival and often competing forces.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the new force is a sign Washington "doesn't want to preserve the territorial integrity of Syria." Lavrov said the nascent border force is "not helping calm the situation" and suggested it would only increase tensions.

Turkey has announced it will soon launch a new operation to take the northwestern Syrian town of Afrin, sending reinforcement to the borders. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the operation against Afrin is to "purge terror" from Turkey's southern border and called on the U.S. to support its efforts.

Russia sent military observers to Afrin last year in an effort to prevent an outbreak of Turkish-Kurdish tensions.

Moscow, a main backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad, and Ankara have supported opposite sides in the conflict, but they struck a deal last year to set up de-escalation zones. The agreement, which also included Assad-backer Iran, has helped reduce fighting significantly and contributed to warmer ties between Russia and Turkey. Turkey's warming up to Moscow is in part due to souring relations with Washington over its support of the Kurdish militia.

For its part, Assad's government on Monday also condemned the U.S. plans for the border force, calling it "a blatant encroachment upon the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Syria" and a violation of international law.</s>BEIRUT/ISTANBUL, Jan 14 (Reuters) - The U.S.-led coalition is working with its Syrian militia allies to set up a new border force of 30,000 personnel, the coalition said on Sunday, a move that has added to Turkish anger over U.S. support for Kurdish-dominated forces in Syria.

A senior Turkish official told Reuters the U.S. training of the new "Border Security Force" was the reason that the U.S. charge d'affaires was summoned in Ankara last week, and President Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman said the development was worrying and unacceptable.

The force, whose inaugural class is currently being trained, will be deployed at the borders of the area controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - an alliance of militias in northern and eastern Syria dominated by the Kurdish YPG.

In an email to Reuters, the coalition's Public Affairs Office confirmed details of the new force reported by The Defense Post. About half the force will be SDF veterans, and recruiting for the other half is under way, the Public Affairs Office said.

The force will deploy along the border with Turkey to the north, the Iraqi border to the southeast and along the Euphrates River Valley, which broadly acts as the dividing line separating the U.S.-backed SDF and Syrian government forces backed by Iran and Russia.

U.S. support for the SDF has put enormous strain on ties with NATO ally Turkey, which views the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - a group that has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey and is considered a terrorist group by the European Union, Turkey and the United States.

Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said that Washington "is taking worrying steps to legitimise this organisation and make it lasting in the region".

"It is absolutely not possible for this to be accepted," he said, adding that Turkey "will continue its fight against any terrorist organisation regardless of its name and shape within and outside its borders".

Syria's main Kurdish groups have emerged as one of the few winners of the Syrian war and are working to entrench their autonomy over large parts of northern Syria.

Washington opposes those autonomy plans, even as it has backed the SDF, the main partner for the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Syria.

The coalition said the BSF would operate under SDF command and about 230 individuals were currently undergoing training in its inaugural class.

"Efforts are taken to ensure individuals serve in areas close to their homes. Therefore, the ethnic composition of the force will be relative to the areas in which they serve.

"More Kurds will serve in the areas in northern Syria. More Arabs will serve in areas along the Euphrates River Valley and along the border with Iraq to the south," the coalition's Public Affairs Office said.

"The base of the new force is essentially a realignment of approximately 15,000 members of the SDF to a new mission in the Border Security Force as their actions against ISIS draw to a close," it said.

"They will be providing border security through professionally securing checkpoints and conducting counter-IED operations," it said, adding that coalition and SDF forces were still engaging Islamic State pockets in Deir al-Zor province.

The United States has about 2,000 troops in Syria fighting Islamic State and has said it is prepared to stay in the country until it is certain Islamic State is defeated, that stabilisation efforts can be sustained and there is meaningful progress in U.N.-led peace talks on ending the conflict.

The Syrian government in Damascus has declared the United States an illegal occupation force and its SDF allies as "traitors". A top Syrian Kurdish politician told Reuters last week that the United States appeared in no hurry to leave Syria. (Additional reporting by Dominic Evans in Istanbul; Editing by Louise Heavens and David Goodman)</s>BEIRUT/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Syria, Turkey and Russia responded vehemently on Monday to new U.S.-backed plans to set up a 30,000-strong “border force” inside Syria to protect territory held by Washington’s mainly Kurdish allies.

The Syrian government vowed to drive the U.S. presence from the country. Turkey, an increasingly estranged U.S. ally within NATO, accused Washington of setting up a “terror army” on the Turkish border, and said it would take steps to protect itself.

Russia, the main ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said the U.S. plans revealed a plot to partition Syria.

The United States has led an international coalition using air strikes and special forces troops to aid fighters on the ground battling Islamic State militants in Syria since 2014. It has about 2,000 troops on the ground in Syria.

The U.S. intervention has taken place mainly on the periphery of a nearly seven-year civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven more than 11 million from their homes.

Islamic State was effectively defeated last year, but Washington says its troops are prepared to stay to make sure the Islamist militant group cannot return, also citing the need for meaningful progress in U.N.-led peace talks.

The government of President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia and Iran, has made great strides over the past two years in defeating a range of opponents and has restored control of nearly all of Syria’s main cities and towns. It considers the continued U.S. presence a threat to its ambition to restore full control over the entire country.

On Sunday, the U.S.-led coalition said it was working with its Syrian militia allies, the mainly Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to set up a new 30,000-strong border force. The force would operate along the borders with Turkey and Iraq, as well as within Syria along the Euphrates River, which separates most SDF territory from that held by the government.

The plan has infuriated Turkey, which considers the Kurdish forces supported by the United States to be a threat to its national security. It says the Syrian Kurdish PYD movement and the affiliated YPG militia, which forms the main backbone of the U.S.-backed SDF force in Syria, are allies of the PKK, a banned Kurdish group waging an insurgency in southern Turkey.

“The USA...setting up a would-be terror army under the guise of a ‘Syrian Border Security Force’ amounts to playing with fire,” Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Twitter.

“The support which the USA has given to the Syrian PYD/YPG arm of the PKK terror group until now, and the steps which it has announced are not befitting a friendship, alliance, model partnership or strategic partnership,” he said.

“Turkey will not refrain from taking the necessary measures and steps to protect our country and region’s security. To use our president’s expression: ‘We may come suddenly one night.'”

Syria’s main Kurdish groups have emerged as one of the few winners in the Syrian war and are working to entrench their autonomy over large parts of northern Syria. Washington opposes those autonomy plans, even as it has backed the SDF.

The Syrian government and the main Kurdish parties have mostly avoided conflict during the civil war, as both sides focused on fighting other groups. But Assad’s rhetoric toward the Kurds has turned increasingly hostile.

Damascus denounced the new border force as a “blatant assault” on its sovereignty, Syrian state media said. It said any Syrian who joined the force would be deemed “a traitor”.

“What the American administration has done comes in the context of its destructive policy in the region to fragment countries ... and impede any solutions to the crises,” state news agency SANA cited a foreign ministry source as saying.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said of the border force plan: ”The actions that we see now show that the United States does not want to maintain the territorial integrity of Syria.

“Literally yesterday, a new initiative was announced about how the U.S. wants to help the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces create some border security zones. Fundamentally, this means the breakup of a large territory along the border with Turkey and Iraq.”

The zone would be controlled by groups “under the leadership of the United States”, he added. “This is a very serious issue that raises concerns that a path toward the partition of Syria has been taken,” he said.

The coalition said the Border Security Force would operate under SDF command, and about 230 individuals were currently undergoing training in its inaugural class.

Its ethnic composition will reflect the areas in which the force serves. More Arabs would serve along the Euphrates River Valley and the Iraqi border, and more Kurds would serve in areas of northern Syria, the coalition said.</s>Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is vowing to "drown" a 30,000-strong border Syrian Kurdish border security force that the United States is setting up.

Erdogan accused its NATO ally U.S. of forming a "terrorist force" at Turkey's border. Ankara considers the Syrian Kurdish militia as a terror group, claiming it is affiliated with Turkey's own outlawed Kurdish rebels fighting against the government.

The Turkish president spoke at an opening in Ankara on Monday.

He says it's his government's "duty is to drown this terrorist force before it is born."

Erdogan also says Turkey's military deployed at the border with Syria is now striking Syrian Kurdish fighters heavy artillery, "at the moment hitting them with howitzers and we will continue to strike them."

The U.S-led coalition in Syria says it has recruited 230 new cadets for a border security force it's establishing together with the Syrian Kurdish-led opposition fighters to secure areas recently liberated from Islamic State militants.

The force will be tasked with securing Syria's northern border with Turkey and the eastern border with Iraq.

The coalition told The Associated Press on Monday that the goal is to have a 30,000-strong force over the next several years. Half of the force will be made up of fighters from the existing Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

The SDF currently controls nearly 25 of Syria's territory along the borders with Turkey and Iraq.

Turkey, which considers the main Kurdish militia in Syria an extension of its own insurgent group, has protested the new force.</s>BEIRUT (AP) - The Latest on developments in Syria (all times local):

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is vowing to "drown" a 30,000-strong border Syrian Kurdish border security force that the United States is setting up.

Erdogan accused its NATO ally U.S. of forming a "terrorist force" at Turkey's border. Ankara considers the Syrian Kurdish militia as a terror group, claiming it is affiliated with Turkey's own outlawed Kurdish rebels fighting against the government.

The Turkish president spoke at an opening in Ankara on Monday.

He says it's his government's "duty is to drown this terrorist force before it is born."

Erdogan also says Turkey's military deployed at the border with Syria is now striking Syrian Kurdish fighters heavy artillery, "at the moment hitting them with howitzers and we will continue to strike them."

The U.S-led coalition in Syria says it has recruited 230 new cadets for a border security force it's establishing together with the Syrian Kurdish-led opposition fighters to secure areas recently liberated from Islamic State militants.

The force will be tasked with securing Syria's northern border with Turkey and the eastern border with Iraq.

The coalition told The Associated Press on Monday that the goal is to have a 30,000-strong force over the next several years. Half of the force will be made up of fighters from the existing Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces.

The SDF currently controls nearly 25 percent of Syria's territory along the borders with Turkey and Iraq.

Turkey, which considers the main Kurdish militia in Syria an extension of its own insurgent group, has protested the new force.</s>BEIRUT/ISTANBUL (Reuters) - The U.S.-led coalition is working with its Syrian militia allies to set up a new border force of 30,000 personnel, the coalition said on Sunday, a move that has added to Turkish anger over U.S. support for Kurdish-dominated forces in Syria.

A senior Turkish official told Reuters the U.S. training of the new “Border Security Force” is the reason that the U.S. charge d‘affaires was summoned in Ankara on Wednesday. The official did not elaborate.

The force, whose inaugural class is currently being trained, will be deployed at the borders of the area controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - an alliance of militias in northern and eastern Syria dominated by the Kurdish YPG.

In an email to Reuters, the coalition’s Public Affairs Office confirmed details of the new force reported by The Defense Post. About half the force will be SDF veterans, and recruiting for the other half is underway, the coalition’s Public Affairs Office said.

The force will deploy along the border with Turkey to the north, the Iraqi border to the southeast, and along the Euphrates River Valley, which broadly acts as the dividing line separating the U.S.-backed SDF and Syrian government forces backed by Iran and Russia.

U.S. support for the SDF has put enormous strain on ties with NATO ally Turkey, which views the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) - a group that has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey.

Syria’s main Kurdish groups have emerged as one of the few winners of the Syrian war, and are working to entrench their autonomy over swathes of northern Syria.

Washington opposes those autonomy plans, even as it has backed the SDF, the main partner for the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Syria.

The coalition said the BSF would operate under SDF command and around 230 individuals were currently undergoing training in its inaugural class.

”Efforts are taken to ensure individuals serve in areas close to their homes. Therefore, the ethnic composition of the force will be relative to the areas in which they serve.

“More Kurds will serve in the areas in northern Syria. More Arabs will serve in areas along the Euphrates River Valley and along the border with Iraq to the south,” the coalition’s Public Affairs Office said.

“The base of the new force is essentially a realignment of approximately 15,000 members of the SDF to a new mission in the Border Security Force as their actions against ISIS draw to a close,” it said.

“They will be providing border security through professionally securing checkpoints and conducting counter-IED operations,” it said, adding that coalition and SDF forces were still engaging Islamic State pockets in Deir al-Zor province.

The United States has about 2,000 troops in Syria fighting Islamic State, and has said it is prepared to stay in the country until it is certain Islamic State is defeated, that stabilization efforts can be sustained, and there is meaningful progress in U.N.-led peace talks on ending the conflict.

The Syrian government in Damascus has declared the United States an illegal occupation force, and its SDF allies as “traitors”. A top Syrian Kurdish politician told Reuters last week the United States appeared in no hurry to leave Syria.</s>Suzan Fraser And Sarah El Deeb, The Associated Press 

 



BEIRUT - Turkey's president on Monday denounced U.S. plans to form a 30,000-strong Kurdish-led border security force in Syria, vowing to “drown this army of terror before it is born,” as Russia and Syria also rejected the idea.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also warned U.S. troops against coming between Turkish troops and Kurdish forces, which Ankara views as an extension of Turkey's own Kurdish insurgency.

Turkey has been threatening to launch a new military operation against the main Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the People's Defence Units, or YPG, in the Kurdish-held Afrin enclave in northern Syria. The YPG is the backbone of a Syrian force that drove the Islamic State group from much of northern and eastern Syria with the help of U.S.-led airstrikes.

Russia has also warned that the nascent U.S. force threatens to fuel tensions around Afrin.

“The United States has admitted that it has created a terrorist force along our country's border. Our duty is to drown this army of terror before it is born,” Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara.

The U.S.-led coalition declined to comment on Erdogan's threats.

“Turkey is a valued member of a 74-member Coalition and a NATO partner, sharing our mission to ensure the lasting defeat of (IS) in Iraq and Syria. It would be inappropriate for us to comment on Mr. Erdogan's remarks,” the coalition said in an email to the Associated Press.

The coalition said the new force, expected to reach 30,000 in the next several years, is a key element of its strategy in Syria to prevent the resurgence of the IS group in Syria.

“A strong border security force will prohibit (IS) freedom of movement and deny the transportation of illicit materials,” the coalition said in a statement to The Associated Press. “This will enable the Syrian people to establish effective local, representative governance and reclaim their land.” The SDF currently controls nearly 25 per cent of Syrian territory in the north and east.

The core of the force is to be made up of fighters from the existing Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the coalition's ally in the fight against IS. Some 230 cadets have already been recruited to the new border force, according to the coalition. The force is expected to be deployed along the borders of the SDF-held areas and Iraq and Turkey.

Turkey sent troops into Syria in 2016 to prevent Syrian Kurdish fighters from forming a contiguous entity along its border. It has also supported rival Syrian rebels and independently fought to drive IS from parts of Syria.

Tensions with Washington have repeatedly erupted over its support of the SDF, prompting U.S. troops to deploy in northeast Syria to prevent clashes between the Kurdish forces and Turkey-backed fighters.

In recent days, Turkey said it would soon launch a new operation in Afrin and sent reinforcements to the border. Russia deployed military observers to Afrin last year in an effort to prevent Turkish-Kurdish clashes.

On Monday, Erdogan said preparations for the military assault on Afrin “are complete,” adding that an operation could start any moment. He said Turkish troops are already firing artillery at Afrin from the border.

“Don't stand between us and these herd of murderers. Otherwise, we won't be responsible for the unwanted incidents that may arise,” he said. “Tear off the insignia you have placed on the uniforms of the terrorists so that we don't have to bury them (U.S. soldiers) together with the terrorists.”

A YPG spokesman in Afrin, Rojhat Roj, said new Turkish reinforcements could be seen arriving at the border overnight. He said they removed parts of the wall already built along the border to allow in new equipment.

Russia said Monday that the new force is a sign Washington “doesn't want to preserve the territorial integrity of Syria.” Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the nascent border force is “not helping calm the situation.”

Moscow is a main backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad, while Turkey supports the Syrian opposition. But they came together last year along with Iran, another Assad ally, to set up “de-escalation” zones that have reduced much of the fighting. Since then, Turkey's ties with Russia have warmed as relations with the U.S. have deteriorated.

Assad's government also condemned the U.S. plans for the border force, calling it “a blatant encroachment upon the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Syria,” and a violation of international law.</s>BEIRUT/MOSCOW (Reuters) - Syria, Turkey and Russia responded vehemently on Monday to new U.S.-backed plans to set up a 30,000-strong "border force" inside Syria to protect territory held by Washington's mainly Kurdish allies.

The Syrian government vowed to drive the U.S. presence from the country. Turkey, an increasingly estranged U.S. ally within NATO, accused Washington of setting up a "terror army" on the Turkish border, and said it would take steps to protect itself.

Russia, the main ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, said the U.S. plans revealed a plot to partition Syria.

The United States has led an international coalition using air strikes and special forces troops to aid fighters on the ground battling Islamic State militants in Syria since 2014. It has about 2,000 troops on the ground in Syria.

The U.S. intervention has taken place mainly on the periphery of a nearly seven-year civil war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and driven more than 11 million from their homes.

Islamic State was effectively defeated last year, but Washington says its troops are prepared to stay to make sure the Islamist militant group cannot return, also citing the need for meaningful progress in U.N.-led peace talks.

The government of President Bashar al-Assad, backed by Russia and Iran, has made great strides over the past two years in defeating a range of opponents and has restored control of nearly all of Syria's main cities and towns. It considers the continued U.S. presence a threat to its ambition to restore full control over the entire country.

On Sunday, the U.S.-led coalition said it was working with its Syrian militia allies, the mainly Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to set up a new 30,000-strong border force. The force would operate along the borders with Turkey and Iraq, as well as within Syria along the Euphrates River, which separates most SDF territory from that held by the government.

The plan has infuriated Turkey, which considers the Kurdish forces supported by the United States to be a threat to its national security. It says the Syrian Kurdish PYD movement and the affiliated YPG militia, which forms the main backbone of the U.S.-backed SDF force in Syria, are allies of the PKK, a banned Kurdish group waging an insurgency in southern Turkey.

"The USA...setting up a would-be terror army under the guise of a 'Syrian Border Security Force' amounts to playing with fire," Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said on Twitter.

"The support which the USA has given to the Syrian PYD/YPG arm of the PKK terror group until now, and the steps which it has announced are not befitting a friendship, alliance, model partnership or strategic partnership," he said.

"Turkey will not refrain from taking the necessary measures and steps to protect our country and region's security. To use our president's expression: 'We may come suddenly one night.'"

Syria's main Kurdish groups have emerged as one of the few winners in the Syrian war and are working to entrench their autonomy over large parts of northern Syria. Washington opposes those autonomy plans, even as it has backed the SDF.

The Syrian government and the main Kurdish parties have mostly avoided conflict during the civil war, as both sides focused on fighting other groups. But Assad's rhetoric toward the Kurds has turned increasingly hostile.

Damascus denounced the new border force as a "blatant assault" on its sovereignty, Syrian state media said. It said any Syrian who joined the force would be deemed "a traitor".

"What the American administration has done comes in the context of its destructive policy in the region to fragment countries ... and impede any solutions to the crises," state news agency SANA cited a foreign ministry source as saying.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said of the border force plan: "The actions that we see now show that the United States does not want to maintain the territorial integrity of Syria.

"Literally yesterday, a new initiative was announced about how the U.S. wants to help the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces create some border security zones. Fundamentally, this means the breakup of a large territory along the border with Turkey and Iraq."

The zone would be controlled by groups "under the leadership of the United States", he added. "This is a very serious issue that raises concerns that a path toward the partition of Syria has been taken," he said.

The coalition said the Border Security Force would operate under SDF command, and about 230 individuals were currently undergoing training in its inaugural class.

Its ethnic composition will reflect the areas in which the force serves. More Arabs would serve along the Euphrates River Valley and the Iraqi border, and more Kurds would serve in areas of northern Syria, the coalition said.</s>The U.S.-led coalition is working with its Syrian militia allies to set up a new border force of 30,000 personnel, the coalition said on Sunday, a move that has added to Turkish anger over U.S. support for Kurdish-dominated forces in Syria.

A senior Turkish official told Reuters the U.S. training of the new “Border Security Force” (BSF) is the reason that the U.S. charge d’affaires was summoned in Ankara on Wednesday. The official did not elaborate.

The force, whose inaugural class is currently being trained, will be deployed at the borders of the area controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of militias in northern and eastern Syria dominated by the Kurdish YPG (People’s Protection Units).

The force will deploy along the border with Turkey to the north, the Iraqi border to the southeast, and along the Euphrates River Valley, which broadly acts as the dividing line separating the U.S.-backed SDF and Syrian government forces backed by Iran and Russia.

U.S. support for the SDF has put enormous strain on ties with NATO ally Turkey, which views the YPG as an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – a group that has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey.

Syria’s main Kurdish groups have emerged as one of the few winners of the Syrian war, and are working to entrench their autonomy over swathes of northern Syria.

Washington opposes those autonomy plans, even as it has backed the SDF, the main partner for the U.S.-led coalition against Islamic State in Syria.

The coalition said the BSF would operate under SDF command and around 230 individuals were currently undergoing training in its inaugural class.

“Efforts are taken to ensure individuals serve in areas close to their homes. Therefore, the ethnic composition of the force will be relative to the areas in which they serve.

“More Kurds will serve in the areas in northern Syria. More Arabs will serve in areas along the Euphrates River Valley and along the border with Iraq to the south,” the coalition’s Public Affairs Office said.

“They will be providing border security through professionally securing checkpoints and conducting counter-IED (improvised explosive device) operations,” it said, adding that coalition and SDF forces were still engaging Islamic State pockets in Deir al-Zor province.

The United States has about 2,000 troops in Syria fighting Islamic State, and has said it is prepared to stay in the country until it is certain Islamic State is defeated, that stabilization efforts can be sustained, and there is meaningful progress in U.N.-led peace talks on ending the conflict.

The Syrian government in Damascus has declared the United States an illegal occupation force, and its SDF allies as “traitors.” A top Syrian Kurdish politician told Reuters last week the United States appeared in no hurry to leave Syria.</s>BEIRUT (AP) — Turkey's president on Monday denounced U.S. plans to form a 30,000-strong Kurdish-led border security force in Syria, vowing to "drown this terror force before it is born," as Russia and Syria also rejected the idea.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan also warned U.S. troops against coming between Turkish troops and Kurdish forces, which Ankara views as an extension of Turkey's own Kurdish insurgency.

Turkey has been threatening to launch a new military operation against the main Syrian Kurdish militia, known as the People's Defense Units, or YPG, in the Kurdish-held Afrin enclave in northern Syria. The YPG is the backbone of a Syrian force that drove the Islamic State group from much of northern and eastern Syria with the help of U.S.-led airstrikes.

Russia has also warned that the nascent U.S. force threatens to fuel tensions around Afrin.

"The United States has admitted that it has created a terrorist force along our country's border. Our duty is to drown this terror force before it is born," Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara.

The U.S.-led coalition says the new force, expected to reach 30,000 in the next several years, is a key element of its strategy in Syria to prevent the resurgence of the IS group in Syria.

"A strong border security force will prohibit (IS) freedom of movement and deny the transportation of illicit materials," the coalition said in a statement to The Associated Press. "This will enable the Syrian people to establish effective local, representative governance and reclaim their land." The SDF currently controls nearly 25 percent of Syrian territory in the north and east.

The core of the force is to be made up of fighters from the existing Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the coalition's ally in the fight against IS. Some 230 cadets have already been recruited to the new border force, according to the coalition. The force is expected to be deployed along the borders of the SDF-held areas and Iraq and Turkey.

Turkey sent troops into Syria in 2016 to prevent Syrian Kurdish fighters from forming a contiguous entity along its border. It has also supported rival Syrian rebels and independently fought to drive IS from parts of Syria.

Tensions with Washington have repeatedly erupted over its support of the SDF, prompting U.S. troops to deploy in northeast Syria to prevent clashes between the Kurdish forces and Turkey-backed fighters.

In recent days, Turkey said it would soon launch a new operation in Afrin and sent reinforcements to the border. Russia deployed military observers to Afrin last year in an effort to prevent Turkish-Kurdish clashes.

On Monday, Erdogan said preparations for the military assault on Afrin "are complete," adding that an operation could start any moment. He said Turkish troops are already firing artillery at Afrin from the border.

"Don't stand between us and these herd of murderers. Otherwise, we won't be responsible for the unwanted incidents that may arise," he said. "Tear off the insignia you have placed on the uniforms of the terrorists so that we don't have to bury them (U.S. soldiers) together with the terrorists.

Russia said Monday that the new force is a sign Washington "doesn't want to preserve the territorial integrity of Syria." Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the nascent border force is "not helping calm the situation."

Moscow is a main backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad, while Turkey supports the Syrian opposition. But they came together last year along with Iran, another Assad ally, to set up "de-escalation" zones that have reduced much of the fighting. Since then, Turkey's ties with Russia have warmed as relations with the U.S. have deteriorated.

Assad's government also condemned the U.S. plans for the border force, calling it "a blatant encroachment upon the sovereignty, unity and territorial integrity of Syria," and a violation of international law.
Turkey threatens to "strangle" the United States-backed Syrian Border Security Force "before it's even born", while Syria vows to crush it and expel American military personnel from the country. Russia called the plans "a plot to dismember Syria".