'US trying to block Turkey moving east of Euphrates'

By Muhammet Emin Avundukluoglu

ANKARA (AA) - The U.S. is trying to head off a possible Turkish operation east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria by placing observation posts in the area, said an independent Turkish parliamentarian on Monday.

"The main aim of the [U.S.] move is to block Turkey's possible operation in the area," Ozturk Yilmaz, a former diplomat, told reporters in parliament on Monday.

He added that the U.S. also aims to "encircle Iran and Turkey and control Baghdad and Damascus."

Last week, U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis said that the U.S. was placing observation posts along the Turkish border in northern Syria.

In 2014, while serving as Turkey’s consul in Mosul, Iraq, Daesh terrorists took Yilmaz and 49 other consulate staffers hostage for 101 days. He was freed through the efforts of the Turkish Intelligence Organization.

A possible mission east of the Euphrates, which Turkey’s leadership has been suggesting for months, would follow two successful cross-border Turkish operations into Syria, Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch, both meant to eradicate the presence of the terrorist YPG/PKK and Daesh near Turkey’s borders.

Turkey has objected to the U.S. helping the terrorist YPG/PKK, in what the U.S. calls anti-Daesh efforts, telling Washington that fighting one terrorist group with another will come to nothing.