Turkey says US, Russia informed of strikes on Kurd militia

Turkey informed the United States and Russia before launching strikes against Kurdish forces in Syria and Iraq, the Turkish foreign minister said today, after Washington angrily accused Ankara of lacklustre coordination.
Turkish war planes carried out strikes on Kurdish militia forces in Syria yesterday and also hit Kurdish forces in neighbouring Iraq in what Ankara described as "terrorist havens".
The strikes killed 28 Kurdish fighters in northeastern Syria alone, according to a monitoring group, while the Turkish army claimed 70 militants were killed.
But the US State Department said it was "deeply concerned" that the strikes were conducted "without proper coordination either with the United States or the broader global coalition" against the Islamic State group (IS).

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said: "Two hours before this operation, we shared information with the US and Russia that we would undertake an operation" in the region.
Cavusoglu said Ankara had told Washington in the "last few weeks" that it would undertake military operations but did not give further detail.

"Turkey acts transparently on all issues. We have no secret agenda... We respect Syria and Iraq's territorial integrity," he told reporters in Uzbekistan.
Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu said Ankara informed the American and Russia military attaches in a statement while Turkish Chief of Staff General Hulusi Akar also called his counterparts in Moscow and Washington.

He said Turkey had long warned "third parties" operating within 30 kilometres (19 miles) of the Turkish border to stay far away from "terror group positions".
Cavusoglu said Ankara had "a legitimate right" to carry out such strikes because of the threats against Turkey, urging its allies to support the efforts.
"There are terrorists who enter Turkey via different paths," he said.
But State Department spokesman Mark Toner said "these kinds of actions frankly harm the coalition's efforts" against IS.
Turkey says fighters of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria are linked to Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) separatists inside Turkey, who have waged an insurgency since 1984 that has killed over 40,000 people.

But Washington sees the YPG as essential in the fight against IS in Syria.
The militia has captured chunks of territory in northern Syria but Ankara has repeatedly said it will not allow a "terror corridor" on its border.
The cross-border operation is the latest by Turkey after its Euphrates Shield operation aimed at ousting Kurdish militia members and IS fighters from the border area in Syria.
The Turkish army said today that the YPG launched mortar attacks from Afrin, northern Syria, on a border security post in Hatay, southern Turkey, which it responded to "in legitimate defence". There were no casualties.

The PKK is listed as a "terrorist group" by the US, the European Union and Turkey, but only Turkey sees the YPG as a terror outfit.
Washington is hoping the SDF, a Syrian Arab-Kurdish alliance dominated by the YPG, will push into the IS bastion of Raqa in Syria, but is wary of upsetting Turkey, a key NATO ally.
The toll in the Turkish raids in Syria rose to 28 Wednesday, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said, adding that most of the dead were YPG members.
The Turkish strikes also killed six pro-Ankara Kurdish peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq on Tuesday, in what was apparently an accident.