US not concerned with Turkey shutting down PYD

By Kasim Ileri

WASHINGTON (AA) – The U.S. is not concerned with Turkey’s efforts to keep terror groups from posing a threat to its border, U.S. commander of the anti-Daesh coalition said Wednesday.

“I do believe that's one of the Turks’ reasons for going as deep as al-Bab, as they desire to keep Kurdish groups separated -- those to the east of al-Bab in the Manbij area and then those to the west in the Afrin area," General Stephen Townsend said referring to terrorist PKK’s Syrian affiliate, PYD.

“I don't see that as a great concern for us,” Townsend said during a press briefing via videoconference from Baghdad.

Outlawed PKK/PYD and its military wing YPG are trying to combine its self-declared cantons in Kobani and al-Hasakah in northeast along the Turkish border with the one in Afrin, northwest corner of Syria, an idea that Turkey has long opposed.

Townsend said it is also important to take al-Bab, 32 kilometers (19 miles) south to the Turkish border, because it is the largest municipal area between Aleppo and al-Raqqa under Daesh control.

Turkey launched Operation Euphrates Shield across its Syria border in late August to improve security, support coalition forces, and eliminate the terror threat along the border using Free Syrian Army fighters backed by Turkish armor, artillery, and jets.

Ankara has said it would build a buffer zone in the area between Jarabulus and Azaz in northwest Syria, along a border stretch that is 98 kilometers (60 miles) long and nearly 40 kilometers (24 miles) deep down to al-Bab.

With regard to the Syrian regime’s offensive on Aleppo, the American general said the fall of Syria’s second largest city and once opposition stronghold to Bashar al-Assad would complicate the U.S.-led coalition efforts against Daesh.

Townsend explained that when defeated in Aleppo, opposition fighters “are going to go elsewhere and do something else”, implying that some of them might attach to Daesh or other extremist groups.

Responding to a question on Daesh’s capture of Palmyra city from Assad regime, Townsend said that it was a battle territory waged by Russians and the Syrian regime, and the coalition would expect them to make a counterattack against the group.

He added that if Russians fail to address the Daesh presence in the historic city, the coalition would strike them soon because it believes that some of the equipment that Daesh captured there might include air defense systems.

Daesh decimated Palmyra before losing it to regime forces in March.