Iraq’s Sinjar, Syria’s Tal Rifaat Next Targets of Turkish Military Op

“We’ve eliminated 3,747 terrorists [in Syria’s Afrin],” Erdogan said on Sunday, adding that Ankara has now begun an operation against the Kurdish militants in Iraq’s Sinjar, Middle East News reported.

“Remember, I told you we’d get them. They will flee, we will chase; the work will not end with Afrin. The PKK went to Sinjar – ‘We’ll go there as well,’ I said. Operations there began,” the President declared.

Ankara’s operation ‘Olive Branch’, targeting Kurdish militias in Syria’s Afrin region, has nearly realized its goals, Erdogan said, adding that “We will take control of the Tal Rifaat town shortly and thus achieve the goals of the operation".

Erdogan has insisted that Turkey’s military activities in neighboring countries targeted “terrorists” exclusively and did not constitute an invasion.

“There’s a fight both external and internal. Our problem lies with terrorists, we’re not an invading power,” Erdogan stated, stressing that “There are examples of that in the West; our African friends know this very well. There’s justice in our history. We are on the side of the oppressed. There’s no coexisting with oppressors. We stand with the oppressed”.

Erdogan announced just a day after pro-Ankara forces seized Afrin that Turkey’s military operation in Syria will target other Kurdish-held towns – and may even spill over into Iraq.

Turkey’s Operation ‘Olive Branch’ kicked off on January 20 from air and ground around the area of Afrin in Syria's Aleppo to oust the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara views as a terror organization and the Syrian branch of the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK).

“Operation Olive Branch” is Turkey's second major military intervention in Syria during the unprecedented foreign-backed militancy that broke out in the Arab country in 2011.

In August 2016, Turkey began a unilateral military intervention in Northern Syria, code-named "Operation Euphrates Shield", sending tanks and warplanes across the border. Ankara claimed that its military campaign was aimed at pushing the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group from Turkey's border with Syria and stopping the advance of Kurdish militants, who were themselves fighting Daesh.

Turkey ended its campaign in Northern Syria in March 2017, but at the time did not rule out the possibility of yet another military offensive inside the Arab country.