Donald Trump has suggested that Kurdish fighters are releasing imprisoned ISIS jihadists to bait the United States into remaining involved in northeastern Syria.
The President spoke out after more than 800 ISIS followers – largely wives and children of fighters – escaped from a prison camp near Ain Issa at the weekend after the Kurds said Turkish forces bombed the camp.
However, Trump seemed to be laying the blame for the mass escape on the Kurds, America’s closest ally in the region until he ordered US forces to withdraw and handed control of security over to President Erdogan.
‘Europe had a chance to get their ISIS prisoners, but didn’t want the cost. ‘Let the USA pay,’ they said…’ Trump tweeted.
‘Kurds may be releasing some to get us involved. Easily recaptured by Turkey or European Nations from where many came, but they should move quickly.’
Turkish state media has repeatedly denied Kurdish allegations that its planes and artillery have been bombing ISIS prison camps in order to help fighters escape, and has pointed the finger of blame at the Kurds instead.
Donald Trump has suggested the the Kurds may be releasing ISIS prisoners deliberately to get the US back into the conflict in Syria, though the Kurds say Turkey is deliberately bombing prison camps in order to free the jihadis
Trump also threatened to level big sanctions against Turkey over its attacks on the Kurds, despite giving President Erdogan permission to move into the region himself
Turkey’s President Erdogan has said his troops are ready to attack Manbij even as Assad’s forces arrived in the area (pictured, a Syrian government tank, reportedly in Manbij) raising the prospect that the two sides will fight for the first time
A Syrian army tank (right) was shown rolling into Manbij on Monday, hours after Assad struck a deal with the Kurds to help defend them in return for territory
Syrian government forces have begun moving into Kurdish territory to defend against a Turkish invasion of northern Syria after striking a deal with the former US allies. It comes as Turkey said it is ready to attack Manbij, one of the towns where Assad has stationed tanks
Erdogan said Turkey’s goal in attacking Manbij is to ‘liberate’ it from Kurdish control and return it to Arab governance, before allowing refugees to resettle there
In return for providing security, the Kurds have agreed to hand over control of the border towns of Manbij (pictured, Turkish tanks near the town) and Kobane, ending five years of autonomous rule
Turkish soldiers drive American-made M60 tanks in the town of Tukhar, north of Syria’s northern city of Manbij, as Turkey and its regional allies fight against Kurdish forces in the area
Bashar al-Assad has deployed Syrian government troops (pictured) to the town of Tal Tamr, around 20 miles from Sari Kani (also known as Ras al-Ain) where heavy fighting occurred between Turkey and Kurdish forces at the weekend
Syrian regime forces are pictured as they patrol a street on the western entrance of the town of Tal Tamr after being sent there to ‘combat Turkish aggression’
Syrian regime forces moved towards the Turkish border Monday after Damascus reached a deal with beleaguered Kurdish forces following a US withdrawal announcement
An image released by the Syrian Arab Army shows its troops in Tal Tamr on Monday – territory which was formerly occupied by Kurdish forces
Syrian government troops were moved close to the border after Russia helped strike a deal between Assad and the Kurds to provide protection against the Turkish invasion
Assad’s forces published images showing their troops being welcomed by Kurdish locals after American suddenly withdrew from the region, paving the way for Turkey to attack
Following America’s sudden withdrawal the Kurds have now allied themselves with the Russian-backed Syrian government, allowing Bashar al-Assad’s troops to enter their territory as part of a defence pact.
In return, Assad will be granted control over Manbij and Kobane, according to a deal hashed out on Sunday.
On Monday the two sides appeared primed for their first confrontation as Erdogan suggested an attack on Manbij was imminent, as Assad’s tanks were filmed rolling into the area.
The battle would mark a significant shift in the regional balance of power because Assad is backed by Russia and Iran, which until now had been firm allies of Turkey over Syria.
It would also mark the first time that Kurdish forces have fought alongside the Russian-backed Syrian government, after previously allying with America until Donald Trump suddenly withdrew US forces from the region.
Erdogan, who is now facing sanctions from Trump over his attacks on the Kurds, said Turkey’s aim will be to return Manbij to Arab populations whom he said where its rightful owners.
Speaking ahead of a visit to Azerbaijan, Erdogan said Turkey would implement its plans for Manbij and settle Arabs there, after an agreement with Washington last year for YPG fighters to leave the town fell through.
‘Our agreement with the United States was for the terrorist organisations to clear Manbij in 90 days,’ he said, referring to the YPG.
‘However, a year has passed and Manbij has not been cleared,’ Erdogan told reporters at the airport in Istanbul.
‘We, as Turkey, will not go into Manbij when it’s emptied. The real owners of that area, the Arabs, and the tribes who are the true owners of that will go there. Our approach on this is for them to be settled there and to provide their security,’ he added.
Asked about the deal struck between the Kurdish forces and Damascus, Erdogan said that he did not expect any problems to emerge in the town of Kobane and added that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a ‘positive approach.’
‘There are many rumours at the moment. However, especially through the embassy and with the positive approach of Russia in Kobani, it appears there won’t be any issues,’ he said, without elaborating.
America ordered its final 1,000 troops to withdraw from Syria ‘as quickly and safely as possible’ on Sunday in the face of the Turkish advance, amid fears they will be accidentally targeted by Turkish artillery and airstrikes.
A tweet by SANA, the Syrian army’s news agency, on Monday said forces had entered the town of Tall Tamr and were ready ‘to confront Turkish aggression’.
The Kurdish administration said in a statement on its Facebook page: ‘In order to prevent and confront this aggression, an agreement has been reached with the Syrian government… so that the Syrian army can deploy along the Syrian-Turkish border to assist the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).’
In their statement the Kurds said that the agreement struck with the Damascus government ‘paves the way to liberate the rest of the Syrian cities occupied by the Turkish army such as Afrin’, a majority Kurdish enclave in the northwest.
Turkey’s attacks have been heavily condemned by European leaders, with France – which has special forces stationed in Syria among the most vociferous critics.
On Monday French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian announced he will not to attend Monday’s match between the French and Turkish football teams in Paris.
Le Drian had previously planned to be at the game, said the minister’s department.
French officials are planning to step up security ahead of this evening’s European Championship game in the Stade de France between the two countries, following the condemnation by France and the European Union of the Turkish offensive.
Meanwhile Jens Stoltenberg, chief of NATO which Turkey is a member of, also criticised the offensive – saying it risks creating further instability in the region.
‘We see a very unstable situation in Syria,’ he said on a visit to London on Monday. ‘We see human suffering… I expressed deep concerns when I was in Istanbul.’
The strikes have led French President Emmanuel Macron to warn that Turkey’s offensive risks creating an ‘unsustainable humanitarian situation’ in the region.
Medics carry people wounded in Turkish air strikes into a hospital in Tal Tamr, which is now under the protection of Syrian Arab Army troops
Tal Tamr, which is 20 miles from the border town of Sari Kani (also known as Ras al-Ain), has seen some of the fiercest fighting of the campaign so far
edics carry wounded civilians injured in an alleged Turkish airstrike at a hospital in Tal Tamr, northeastern of Syria
Members of Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army, a militant group active in parts of northwest Syria, heading toward Syrian town of Tal Abyad as they continue their assault against the Kurds
Turkish-backed Syrian fighters speak with people after withdrawing from the front line back into Turkish territory
Turkish military vehicles carrying armoured personal carriers head toward the Syrian town of Tal Abyad near the border
Turkey moved its forces into northern Syria last week after Donald Trump agreed to withdraw US troops and hand over control of regional security to Ankara
Macron’s office said France will take measures in coming hours to ensure the safety of alll its military and civilian personnel in northeastern Syria after an urgent defence cabinet meeting.
France, which is part of the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State in the region, has special forces operating in the area.
On Sunday Turkish forces and their proxies pushed deeper into Syria, on the fifth day of the offensive, as Washington announced it was withdrawing its 1,000 troops from the country’s north.
Fighting raged, as Turkish-backed forces made significant progress along the border, despite an international outcry over the operation which has killed dozens of civilians and fighters, and forced tens of thousands to flee their homes.
It came after a strike which killed at least ten as a convoy of journalists, aid workers and civilians was shelled by Turkish forces.
The convoy guarded by armed men was hit when it arrived in Ras al-Ain (Sari Kani), a border town that advancing Turkish-allied forces have seized.
A neighbourhood on the edge of the town remains in the hands of Kurdish-led fighters.
A spokesman for the Kurdish forces, said 11 were killed and 74 injured but it was not clear how many were civilians.
Turkish-backed Syrian rebels haul down a Kurdish flag that had been flying over a town on the outskirts of Tel Abaid after seizing control of the border city
Rebels from the Syrian National Army (also known as the Free Syrian Amry), a Turkish-backed rebel group, raise their flag above a town on the outskirts of Tel Abaid
Soldiers riding on top of a tank carry the Syrian national flag, a symbol of the government’s army, into Manbij province as they arrive in defence of the Kurds
A man greets a Syrian army soldier in the town of Tel Tamer in northeast Syria, in pictures taken by Assad’s troops
A Syrian army soldier sits at a back of a truck in the town of Tell Tamr in northeast Syria on Monday
A woman gestures as a Syrian army soldier stands on a back of a truck in the town of Tell Tamr in northeast Syria
The Observatory said journalists, including foreigners, were accompanying the convoy. A Kurdish news agency, Hawar, said one of its reporters was killed.
Images of the attack showed the airstrike shatter an otherwise quiet street and footage shows bodies and severed limbs strewn in the street.
Some of those killed appeared to be carrying guns. Activists said the gunmen were guarding the convoy.
France 2 journalist Stephenie Perez said she was on the convoy when it was struck. She said her team was fine but some colleagues had died. The Syrian-based North Press Agency said journalist Delsoz Jousef was severely injured in the strike.
The convoy strike came hours after reports that Turkish-backed proxies executed nine civilians including a female politician.
Kurdish political leader Hevrin Khalaf and her driver were among those killed after they were shot by the side of the road after being dragged from their vehicle.
Images of the attack showed the airstrike shatter an otherwise quiet street and footage shows bodies and severed limbs strewn in the street
Casualties pour into Syrian hospitals as the Turkish border offensive continues with as many as 74 injured in today’s convoy strike
Journalists, including foreigners, were accompanying the convoy. A Kurdish news agency, Hawar, said one of its reporters was killed
The Observatory said journalists, including foreigners, were accompanying the convoy. A Kurdish news agency, Hawar, said one of its reporters was killed
Images shared by the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights appear to picture people running away from the Ain Issa
In this photo taken from the Turkish side of the border with Syria, in Ceylanpinar, Sanliurfa province, smoke billows from fires on targets in Ras al-Ayn
Footage circulating online shows the attackers shouting insults as they fire their weapons. The UN said the footage is genuine, according to The Guardian.
The Syrian Observatory said the nine executions happened at different moments south of the town of Tel Abyad.
In a separate incident today, 800 women affiliated with Islamic State and their children fled a camp where they were being held in northern Syria after shelling by Turkish forces.
The region’s Kurdish-led administration said in a statement that 785 IS-affiliated foreigners had fled the camp at Ain Issa.
In apparent reference to Turkish-backed rebels, the Kurdish-led administration said ‘mercenaries’ attacked the camp where ‘Daesh elements’ – a reference to Islamic State – in turn attacked camp guards and opened the gates.
Images shared by the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights appear to picture people running away from the Ain Issa.
It is believed the ISIS ‘matchmaker’ Tooba Gondal, 25, from Walthamstow, north London, was in the camp with her two children after she was caught trying to get to Turkey following the fall of Baghuz.
Smoke rises over the Syrian town of Tel Abyad, as seen from the Turkish border town of Akcakale today, as military action continues
A Turkish-backed Syrian fighter fires a heavy machine gun in the border Syrian town of Tal Abyad on Sunday during further clashes
Turkey’s cross-border attack in northern Syria against Kurdish forces widened to target the town of Suluk which was hit by Ankara’s Syrian rebel allies. There were conflicting accounts on the outcome of the fighting.
Turkey is facing threats of possible sanctions from the US unless it calls off the incursion. Two of its NATO allies, Germany and France, have said they are halting weapons exports to Turkey. The Arab League has denounced the operation.
France said today it was ‘worried’ to hear of the report that hundreds of relatives of foreign jihadists had escaped.
‘Of course we are worried about what could happen and that is why we want Turkey… to end as quickly as possible the intervention it has begun,’ government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye told France 3 television.
This was echoed by Germany as Chancellor Angela Merkel urged Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the phone to stop his country’s military offensive.
A statement by the Chancellery said regardless of ‘legitimate Turkish security interests,’ the military operation threatens to displace major parts of the local population.
Germany says the offensive also threatens to destabilise the region and restrengthen the extremist Islamic State group.
It came as Vladimir Putin said all foreign troops should leave Syria unless the Syrian government asks them to stay.
A Turkish military truck carries tanks on the way to Northern Syria for the military operation in Kurdish areas in Akcakale district, Turkey
Turkey-backed Syrian rebel fighters sit in a military tank in the village of Yabisa, near the Turkish-Syrian border, on Sunday
A man waves a Syrian opposition flag reading ‘Free Syria’ on Sunday in Akcakale, Turkey, as smoke rises in the background
Turkish army vehicles and military personnel are stationed near the Turkish-Syrian border in Sanliurfa province, Turkey, today
The Russian president said in an interview with three Arabic television stations that was released Sunday that ‘all foreign nations’ should withdraw their troops unless they have been asked by the Syrian government to stay there.
He said Russia, which has a significant military presence there as well as an air and a naval bases, would also leave if President Bashar Assad asks it to.
Putin, a staunch backer of Assad, stopped short of condemning Turkey for sending its troops across the border into northeastern Syria earlier this week, but said that other nations should respect Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
And the US appeared to oblige as it is now poised to evacuate about 1,000 US troops from northern Syria, Defence Secretary Mark Esper said in an interview today.
‘In the last 24 hours, we learned that [the Turks] likely intend to extend their attack further south than originally planned, and to the west,’ Esper said in a pre-taped interview with CBS.
‘We also have learned in the last 24 hours that the … SDF are looking to cut a deal, if you will, with the Syrians and the Russians to counterattack against the Turks in the north.’
Esper called the situation ‘untenable’ for US forces, saying he spoke with Trump last night, and that the president directed the U.S. military to ‘begin a deliberate withdrawal of forces from northern Syria.’
Ankara launched the assault against the Kurdish YPG militia after Trump’s first withdrawal of some US troops from the border region last week.
It says the YPG is a terrorist group aligned with Kurdish militants waging an insurgency in Turkey.
Turkey’s stated objective is to set up a ‘safe zone’ inside Syria to resettle many of the 3.6 million Syrian war refugees it has been hosting. President Tayyip Erdogan has threatened to send them to Europe if the EU does not back his assault.
But the Turkish incursion has raised international alarm over large-scale displacements of civilians and, amidst the upheaval, the possibility of Islamic State militants escaping from prisons run by the Kurdish-led authorities.
The Kurdish-led forces have been the main regional ally of the United States against Islamic State in Syria.
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) hold swathes of territory that was once part of Islamic State’s ‘caliphate’.
The SDF has been keeping thousands of IS jihadists in jail and tens of thousands of their family members in camps.
SDF official Marvan Qamishlo said there were not have enough guards for the camp, which is north of Raqqa and about 20 miles south of the Turkish border.
‘The guarding is very weak now,’ he said, adding there were now just 60-70 security personnel at the camp compared with a normal level of no less than 700 in the camp of 12,000 people.
Along the front lines, Turkish forces and Syrian rebels entered Suluk, some 6 miles from Turkey’s border, the Observatory said on Sunday.
Turkey’s state-owned Anadolu news agency said the rebels seized complete control of Suluk. But the SDF’s Qamishlo said SDF forces had repelled the attack and were still in control.
It is believed the ISIS ‘matchmaker’ Tooba Gondal (pictured), 25, from Walthamstow, who reportedly lured Shamima Begum to Syria, was in the camp with her two children after she was caught trying to get to Turkey following the fall of Baghuz
Pictures taken by British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights show the inside of the camp as Turkish-backed forces approached
Syrian rebel fighters ride on a truck mounted with a weapon in the village of Yabisa, near the Turkish-Syrian border, on Sunday
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor confirmed ‘around 100’ foreign women and children from families of IS members escaped the camp (file photo of a volunteer caretaker inside the camp), without specifying their nationalities
Hundreds of demonstrators including Kurdish citizens march through central London towards Westminster in protest against Turkey’s military offensive in Syria
Hundreds of protesters with placards showing Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan and slogans reading ‘Murderer Turkish State’ and making their way through central London towards Westminster.
Demonstrations began at the BBC’s Broadcasting House at around 12.30pm against the continued Turkish military presence in Rojava, in northern Syria.
The crowd, which included Kurdish citizens, then marched down Regent Street, chanting ‘down with fascism’ and setting off red smoke.
Demonstrations began at the BBC’s Broadcasting House at around 12.30pm against the continued Turkish military presence in Rojava, in northern Syria. Pictured on Regent Street
Niaz Maarof, 41, a driver from London, was part of the march and said the Kurdish community was opposed to the Turkish military presence in northern Syria.
‘This is a demonstration showing against Erdogan and Turkey attacking the Kurdish in Rojava after almost 10 years that we have been fighting against ISIS.
‘They liberated the area, they are running a democratic government and now Turkey, with the green light from America, is attacking the area. So, as Kurds, we are not happy about it.
Mr Maarof from South Kurdistan said he agreed with Boris Johnson, who this week urged President Erdogan to end the military assault but that more action was needed from the British Government.
‘The world does owe the Kurdish now for what they did in Syria. If you really mean it, the British should stop selling Turkey weapons, because last year Theresa May gave them planes and now they are using them against us.
‘The whole world is watching and no-one is saying anything.
‘We, the Kurdish, are upset, not only with Turkey but with most of the world, because we are not being helped.’
Protesters chanted ‘wake up UK, Turkish state is Isis’ and set off coloured smoke as the march made its way through central London towards Parliament Square.