Erdogan says Turkey will crush ‘terror army’ in northern Syria

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures to supporters of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), at a rally in Bingol, eastern Turkey, Saturday, Jan. 13, 2018. Erdogan has said Turkey will oust Kurdish militants from Afrin, northern Syria, as the military shelled the area from across the border. Turkey considers the YPG a terror group and an extension of the Kurdish insurgency within its own borders. (AP)

ISTANBUL: President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday the United States was trying to create a “terror army” on Turkey’s southern frontier by training a Syrian border force including Kurdish militia, and pledged to crush the force before it came into being.
Erdogan also said that Turkey’s armed forces had completed preparations for an operation against the Kurdish-controlled region of Afrin in northwest Syria and the town of Manbij.