ISTANBUL: Turkey’s defense minister says Turkish and US soldiers will patrol the key northern Syrian town of Manbij as part of a deal reached this week for the withdrawal of a Syrian Kurdish militia.
Speaking in Brussels after a NATO summit late Friday, Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said he met his American counterpart James Mattis. “We had a very detailed, constructive and positive meeting on the Manbij roadmap,” he said.
Turkey has repeatedly called on the US to stop backing the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, which it considers terrorists and an extension of a Kurdish insurgency within its own borders.
The US-backed force has been instrumental in fighting the Daesh group and pushing them out of northern Syria, including in Manbij.
Canikli’s comments were carried by Turkey’s official Anadolu news agency.
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Turkey: US and Turkish troops to patrol Manbij
Turkey: US and Turkish troops to patrol Manbij
- Turkey has repeatedly called on the US to stop backing the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, which it considers terrorists
- Speaking in Brussels after a NATO summit late Friday, Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli said he met his American counterpart James Mattis
US embassy in Kuwait was struck by drones: three diplomats to AFP
- Witnesses said embassy had been damaged by a number of drones
KUWAIT: The US embassy in Kuwait was struck by drones, three diplomatic sources told AFP after smoke was seen rising from the diplomatic mission earlier on Monday.
One Kuwait-based diplomat and a Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the embassy had been damaged by a number of drones while a second Kuwait-based diplomat said the embassy building had been struck directly in the attack.
As an AFP correspondent saw smoke rising from the diplomatic mission on Iran’s third day of retaliatory Gulf attacks, the US embassy said that people should not come to the facility, warning of “a continuing threat of missile and UAV (drone) attacks over Kuwait.”
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