Turkey fires first shots: Ankara bombs Kurdish supply route ahead of invasion to create a 'peace corridor' along border just hours after Trump pulls US troops - as president reveals he has invited Erdogan to the White House next month (41 Pics)
Turkey fired its first shots against the Kurds overnight by bombing a key supply route on the Syrian-Iraqi border, officials have confirmed.
The Turkish air force struck the Semalka Border Crossing in order to stop Kurdish forces resupplying along a route which links their territories in northern Iraq and Syria, two security officials said.
'One of the fundamental goals was to cut off the transit route between Iraq and Syria before the operation in Syria, a source told Reuters. 'In this way, the group's support lines, including ammunition, are shut off.'
Video shot in the area overnight shows two large flashes against the horizon while the distant sound of fighter jets can be heard. It is thought this shows the crossing being destroyed.
It comes a day after Donald Trump agreed to withdraw US troops from Syria and hand control of regional security over to Turkey, which has vowed to create a 'peace corridor' along its border by wiping out 'terrorists'.
Trump also confirmed on Tuesday morning that he'd extended an invitation to the country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to meet with him at the White House in November.
In a tweet, Trump said Turkey was a 'good trading partner of the US' and had been 'very good to deal with'.
Turkey views the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces - America's key ally in the battle against ISIS - as a terror group and has previously outlined plans to strike a series of their strongholds along the border.
Trump has been accused of a 'spineless' capitulation to Turkey over his pledge to withdraw troops - and on Tuesday denied that he had abandoned the Kurds to their fate.
He tweeted: 'We may be in the process of leaving Syria, but in no way have we Abandoned the Kurds, who are special people and wonderful fighters. Likewise our relationship with Turkey, a NATO and Trading partner, has been very good.'
Turkey has said it is ready to open a 'peace corridor' by eradicating 'terrorists' along its southern border - by which it means Kurdish troops - once the US has withdrawn (battle plans, pictured). Erdogan fired his first shots overnight by blowing up the Semalka border crossing (top right) in order to stop
Syrian National Army forces are dispatched to Manbij front line ahead of Turkey's planned operation in the east of the Euphrates River
Turkish soldiers are seen on artillery pieces holding their positions near the border with Syria in Sanliurfa province
Syrian National Army forces - which are backed by Turkey and not allied with the Syrian government - assemble near Manbij ahead of Turkey's planned invasion of Kurdish territory on Tuesday
Turkey has said that it plans to create a 'peace corridor' along its border with Syria by driving out terrorists - by which it means Kurdish forces - and began assembling troops for the mission on Tuesday (pictured)
Turkey has fought a decades-long insurgency by the Kurds, who demand their own independent state which would fall largely on Turkish territory. Erdogan has vowed never to let that happen (pictured, Turkish-backed rebels assemble in Syria)
Syrian National Army forces are dispatched to Manbij front line ahead of Turkey's planned operation in the east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria in Aleppo
Trump defended his decision to withdraw troops from the region, despite it being met with fury and disgust by GOP lawmakers.
Shortly after announcing he'd extended an invitation to Ergodan, Trump tweeted that: 'Turkey already has a large Kurdish population and fully understands that while we only had 50 soldiers remaining in that section of Syria, and they have been removed, any unforced or unnecessary fighting by Turkey will be devastating to their economy and to their very fragile currency. We are helping the Kurds financially/weapons!'
This comes after Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell on Monday called the move 'a retreat' that 'would increase the risk that ISIS and other terrorist groups regroup'. South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump's closest friends in Congress, also blasted him in a tweet, calling the move 'a stain on America's honor' and 'a disaster in the making.' Graham said: 'The biggest lie being told by the administration [is] that ISIS is defeated.'
Turkey has been involved in a decades-long conflict with Kurdish separatists as they demand their own state, which would fall largely on Turkish territory.
Erdogan has been repeatedly accused of carrying out atrocities against Turkish Kurds.
As the Syrian conflict threatened to enter a deadly new phase...
- Iran, Turkey's regional ally, warned Ankara not to push ahead with its invasion and to 'respect' the territorial integrity of Syria
- Turkey's vice-president said his country 'won't bow to threats' after Trump warned he will crash their economy if they do anything he deems 'off limits'
- The Syrian government urged the Kurds to join with Assad's forces 'rather than plunge into the abyss' after being abandoned by the US
- President Trump confirmed he will meet President Erdogan during a visit to the White House next month
Trump was accused of a 'spineless' capitulation to Turkey, Iran and Russia after suddenly agreeing to withdraw US troops during a call with Erdogan on Sunday which left the Defense Department 'blindsided'.
Donald Trump denied abandoning the Kurds to their fate Tuesday, despite the troop withdrawal, saying that any 'unforced or unnecessary fighting' by Turkey would result in him crashing their economy
A National Security Council official, who is said to have direct knowledge of the conversation, said Trump was 'out-negotiated' and 'got rolled' by Erdogan during a routine call.
In an apparent attempt to shore up his tough-guy credentials, Trump tweeted Monday that if Turkey 'does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the economy of Turkey'.
However, Turkey said will not bow to threats over its Syria plans, the Turkish vice president said Tuesday in an apparent response to President Donald Trump's warning to Ankara the previous day about the scope of its planned military incursion into northeastern Syria.
Trump said earlier this week the United States would step aside for an expected Turkish attack on Syrian Kurdish fighters, who have fought alongside Americans for years, but he then threatened to destroy the Turks' economy if they went too far.
He later cast his decision to abandon the Kurdish fighters in Syria as fulfilling a campaign promise to withdraw from 'endless war' in the Middle East, even as Republican critics and others said he was sacrificing a U.S. ally and undermining American credibility.
Trump's statements have reverberated on all sides of the divide in Syria and the Mideast.
The Syrian National Army, component of Syrian opposition forces, held the military exercise in Afrin, near the border with Turkey, to support Turkish Armed Forces, ahead of Turkey's planned assault into Syria
The Syrian National Army is a group of former soldiers and commanders from the Syrian Army which split from Bashar al-Assad in the early years of the Syrian civil war, and is now supported by Turkey
A soldier armed with a heavy machine gun stands to attention during a parade of Syrian National Army forces - a Turkish-backed rebel group - in northern Syria
Turkey's Defence Ministry said Tuesday that it is ready to 'fight against terrorists threatening the integrity of our homeland' - by which it almost certainly means Kurdish-led SDF forces
Turkey vowed to create a 'peace corridor' along the border, which it previously said will involve pushing east from Afrin through Manbij, Kobane, and Sari Kari to Qamishli on the Iraqi border
In Ankara, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said Turkey was intent on combatting Syrian Kurdish fighters across its border in Syria and on creating a zone that would allow Turkey to resettle Syrian refugees there.
'Where Turkey's security is concerned, we determine our own path but we set our own limits,' Oktay said.
Meanwhile, in the Syrian capital of Damascus, Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad called on the country's Kurds to rejoin the government side after apparently being abandoned by their U.S. allies.
Mekdad's comments were the first Syrian reaction since Trump's announcement on Sunday and as northeastern Syria braces for an imminent Turkish attack on Syrian Kurdish militias. Trump's statement has infuriated the Kurds, who stand to lose the autonomy they gained from Damascus during Syria's civil war, now in its ninth year.
'The homeland welcomes all its sons and Damascus will solve all Syrian problems in a positive way, away from violence,' Mekdad claimed in an interview with the pro-government daily Al-Watan.
President Bashar Assad's government abandoned the predominantly Kurdish area in northern Syria at the height of Syria's civil war to focus on more key areas where the military was being challenged by the rebels.
The U.S. began working with the Syrian Kurdish fighters after the emergence of the Islamic State group.
The Syrian government 'will defend all Syrian territory and will not accept any occupation of any land or iota of the Syrian soil,' Mekdad said about the expected Turkish incursion.
The Syrian Kurdish force has pledged to fight back, raising the potential for an eruption of new warfare in Syria.
'We will not hesitate for a moment in defending our people' against Turkish troops, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said in a statement, adding that it has lost 11,000 fighters in the war against the Islamic State group in Syria.
On Tuesday, a spokesman for the U.S.-backed predominantly Kurdish force that fought IS invited Trump to come see the progress the force and the U.S. made in northeastern Syria.
'We have more work to do to keep ISIS from coming back & make our accomplishments permanent. If America leaves, all will be erased,' he tweeted, referring to the Islamic State group by an alternative acronym.
Turkey, which considers Kurdish fighters in Syria terrorists and links them to a decades-old insurgency in Turkey, has already launched two major incursions into northern Syria over the past years.
Turkish-backed rebel forces assemble on the frontline near Manbij, a Kurdish-held town which will likely be the first target of the Turkish assault, on Tuesday
Syrian National Army forces are dispatched to Manbij front line ahead of Turkey's planned operation in the east of the Euphrates River
Syrian National Army, component of Syrian opposition forces, held the military exercise in Afrin, Syria, near the border with Turkey, to support Turkish Armed Forces
Turkish-backed Syrian rebels drive in convoy towards Aleppo as Turkey prepares for an assault on nearby Kurdish strongholds following Donald Trump's offer to withdraw US troops
Turkey began moving its forces across the border into Afrin province on Monday, while Syrian rebels which it supports (pictured) were seen moving toward Aleppo on Tuesday
Turkish-backed Syrian rebel fighters head to an area near the Syrian-Turkish border north of Aleppo
The area inhabited by Kurdish people straddles Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Iran and Armenia and the area currently controlled by the Kurds crosses over Iraq and Syria. Turkey fears an independent Kurdish state would threaten its security
President Trump took to Twitter to threaten Turkey and demand Europe must 'watch over' captured ISIS fighters
The first was in 2016, when Turkey and Syrian opposition fighters it backs attacked areas held by the Islamic State group west of the Euphrates River.
Last year Turkey launched an attack on the Syrian Kurdish enclave of Afrin, leading to the displacement of some 300,000 people.
Also Tuesday, Iran urged Turkey not to go ahead with its planned an attack on Syrian Kurds, the Iranian state TV reported. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, to express Tehran's opposition to the anticipated Turkish operation.
Zarif urged Turkey to respect Syria's integrity and sovereignty, the report said.
Iran, Turkey and Russia have been working together as part of the so-called Astana group on the Syrian civil war, talks that have run parallel to U.N. efforts to find a solution to the conflict.
Trump's announcement threw the military situation in Syria into fresh chaos and injected deeper uncertainty into the region.
U.S. involvement in Syria has been fraught with peril since it started in 2014 with the insertion of small numbers of special operations forces to recruit, train, arm and advise local fighters to combat the Islamic State.
Trump entered the White House in 2017 intent on getting out of Syria, and even before the counter-IS military campaign reclaimed the last militant strongholds early this year, he declared victory and said troops would leave.
In recent weeks, the U.S. and Turkey had reached an apparent accommodation of Turkish concerns about the presence of Kurdish fighters, seen in Turkey as a threat.
American and Turkish soldiers had been conducting joint patrols in a zone along the border. As part of that work, barriers designed to protect the Syrian Kurds were dismantled amid assurances that Turkey would not invade.
Turkey's vice president Fuat Oktay says his country won't bow to threats in an apparent response to U.S. U.S. President Donald Trump's warning to Ankara about the scope of its planned military incursion into Syria
President Erdogan during a news conference in Ankara today before his departure for Serbia, where he said US troops have started to withdraw from positions in northern Syria