Turkey’s president vows to establish a so-called safe zone in northern Syria amid intensified Turkish attacks on Kurdish militants in the Arab country.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Ankara will complete that zone as soon as possible. He has long sought to achieve this goal, which has repeatedly been decried by the Syrian government. His remarks came as a UK-based monitoring group affiliated to the Syrian opposition said Turkey carried out new raids on the northeastern province of Hasakah earlier in the day. Turkey started hitting areas in northeastern Syria two years ago. But it intensified the strikes since last week when an explosion in Istanbul killed six people. Ankara blames the bombing on Kurdish militant groups based in Iraq and Syria. They have denied the allegation. Damascus has called Turkey’s airstrikes a breach of both international law and Syria's sovereignty.