Erdogan: We Will ‘Strangle’ U.S.-Backed Force in Syria “Before It’s Even Born”

• Erdogan: We Will ‘Strangle’ U.S.-Backed Force in Syria “Before It’s Even Born”
  by Ellen Francis, Ezgi Erkoyun, https://www.reuters.com/
  BEIRUT/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan threatened on Monday to “strangle” a planned 30,000-strong U.S.-backed force in Syria “before it’s even born,” as Washington’s backing for Kurdish fighters drove a wedge into relations with one of its main Middle East allies.
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  The United States announced its support on Sunday for plans for a “border force” to defend territory held by U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led fighters in northern Syria.
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  The Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad responded on Monday by vowing to crush the new force and drive U.S. troops from the country. Assad’s ally Russia called the plans a plot to dismember Syria and place part of it under U.S. control.
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  But the strongest denunciation came from Erdogan, who has presided as relations between the United States and its biggest Muslim ally within NATO have stretched to the breaking point.
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  “A country we call an ally is insisting on forming a terror army on our borders,” Erdogan said of the United States in a speech in Ankara. “What can that terror army target but Turkey?”
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  “Our mission is to strangle it before it’s even born.”
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  Erdogan said Turkey had completed preparations for an operation in Kurdish-held territory in northern Syria. The Kurdish-led regions in Syria say they need the border force to protect them against threats from Ankara and Damascus.
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