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Turkey to suspend Syria offensive

8 || risingbd.com

Published: 20:52, 17 October 2019   Update: 15:18, 26 July 2020
Turkey to suspend Syria offensive

Turkey has agreed to a ceasefire in northern Syria to let Kurdish-led forces withdraw.

The development followed talks in Ankara between US Vice-President Mike Pence and Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

All fighting will be paused for five days, and the US will help facilitate an "orderly withdrawal" of Kurdish-led troops from what Turkey terms a "safe zone" on the border, Mr Pence said.

Turkey launched its assault last week.

Its goal was to push back from its border a Kurdish militia group - the People's Protection Units (YPG) - that it views as a terrorist organisation.

Turkey had hoped to resettle up to two million Syrian refugees in the area, but critics warned that could trigger ethnic cleansing of the local Kurdish population.

The cross-border offensive came after US President Donald Trump announced he was pulling US forces out of the border region - a decision condemned by US politicians across party lines.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fought alongside the US against the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, and the US withdrawal has been condemned as the abandonment of an ally.

Agencies
 

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