The U.S. State Department urged Turkey on Thursday not to take military action against Afrin region in Syria and called instead for Ankara to remain focused on fighting Islamic State militants in the region, Reuters reported.
Asked about signs that Turkey was preparing to strike a Kurdish militia in Afrin, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told a briefing: “We would call … on the Turks to not take any actions of that sort. … We don’t want them to engage in violence but we want them to keep focused on ISIS.”
Turkey sees the Syrian Kurdish forces as a terror group, which is one of the wings of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) listed as a terrorist organization in Turkey, Ermenihaber reported.
Earlier the Turkish media said the U.S. was intending to set up a Syrian Kurdish border force. In response, the top Turkish officials threatened to launch military operations in Kurdish-held areas in Syria.