(AhlulBayt News Agency) - Turkish armed forces will be able to carry out cross-border operations in Syria and Iraq by the autumn of 2017, MPs in the country have decided.
Lawmakers in Turkey have approved an extension of the military's mandate with the approval of all parties except the Kurd-dominated Peace and Democracy Party (HDP).
"The extension of the mandate will support the government's ongoing actions to end terror threats permanently and will be a dissuasive factor against terrorist groups ISIS and PKK," Anadolu Agency quotes Defense Minister Fikri Işık as saying before Parliament's first session after he summer recess.
The newly approved deadline is October 30, 2017.
Turkey is fighting the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and trying to counter the Syrian Kurdish party PYD, which it accuses, along with its armed wing YPG, of being an ally of the PKK. The Turkish military also continues its offensive against the ISIS group. Both targets require a cross-border mandate.
Ankara meanwhile tabled its own proposal for an offensive on Raqqa, in which Turkey is only ready to participate if YPG forces are not involved. Its offer extens to the Arab elements in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and the Free Syrian Army (FSA).
A Turkish official is quoted by Hürriyet Daily News as saying that Ankara wants "Arab elements of the SDF and the FSA to establish a joint administration in Manbij."
"These Arabs should act togeher in a military offensive towards Raqqa, too," the official reportedly says.
Earlier in September, Ankara also warned that the arming of Syrian Kurds committed by the US is "a mistake".
The Iraqi government condemned the unilateral move, calling it a sheer violation of Iraq’s sovereignty. Baghdad even turned to the United Nations Security Council to force Turkey to withdraw its troops from northern Iraq.
Also under the same mandate, Turkish troops, backed by tanks and warplanes, entered the Syrian territory in September in a sudden incursion which resulted in the occupation of Jarablus after ISIS left the city without resistance. Damascus has strongly denounced the incursion, slamming it as a “flagrant breach” of the Syrian sovereignty.
The Turkish claims that it is hitting terrorists in Syria come as Ankara has been accused of supporting anti-Damascus militants inside the Arab country.
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2 October 2016 - 12:40
News ID: 782797
Turkish armed forces will be able to carry out cross-border operations in Syria and Iraq by the autumn of 2017, MPs in the country have decided.
