Turkey vows to eliminate ISIS from Syria after the latest Manbij attack

Amid the U.S. withdrawal from Syria, Turkey will press the fight against ISIL to clear it from Syrian soil, Turkey’s president has said.

“Turkey will continue the fight against Daesh and eliminate this terrorist group in Syria,” Recep Tayyip Erdoğan told on Jan. 17 a joint press conference with visiting Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic in the capital Ankara.

On the Jan. 16 suicide attack in Manbij, Syria, which reports say killed four U.S. soldiers, Erdoğan said that he doesn’t believe U.S. President Donald Trump will back down in the face of this attack, as this would mean victory for ISIL.

He added that the attack could be meant to dissuade the U.S. from leaving Syria.

Manbij has been held by U.S.-backed fighters allied to the YPG since they took it from ISIL in 2016.

It is located near areas held by Russian-backed Syrian government forces and by anti-Assad fighters backed by Turkey, which lists the YPG as a terrorist organization.

The attack came after Trump’s surprise announcement last month of the withdrawal of American forces from Syria.

The pullout decision came during a phone call with Erdoğan in which the two leaders agreed on the need for more effective coordination over the civil war-torn country.

Source: Hurriyet Daily News