One week after the start of Turkish operation, no end in sight for the conflicts in northern Syria

Tabnak – As the Turkish military operation in northern Syria is entering its first week, there’s still no sign of ending the deadly conflict on the horizon. In the face of American criticism, the Ankara has even threatened to expand the scope of military operation. 

According to the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey may extend its operation against the Afrin region in Syria to other cities as far east as the Iraqi border.

Addressing provincial leaders from his ruling Justice and Development Party on Friday, the Turkish leader vowed to "clean up" the city of Manbij, east of Afrin, also held by US-backed YPG militants.

“We will continue our fight until there is no terrorist on our border leading to Iraq,” Erdogan said. The Turkish leader also criticized Washington's call for the operation to be "short" and "limited" in scope. "How long has Afghanistan lasted? Nearly 20 years. How long has it lasted in Iraq? Nearly 18 years!" Erdogan said.

However, a senior official in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias of which the YPG is the strongest, said any wider Turkish assault would face “the appropriate response”.

Erdogan held phone talks with US President Donald Trump late on Wednesday. The US said Trump had urged Turkey to "limit its military actions" but a Turkish official said the US statement did "not accurately reflect the content" of the call.

Meanwhile, it is reported that Kurdish authorities in Syria’s Afrin district have called on the Syrian government to send troops to help defend them from the Turkish incursion in line with protecting the country’s sovereignty.

“We call on the Syrian state to carry out its sovereign obligations towards Afrin and protect its borders with Turkey from attacks of the Turkish occupier ... and deploy its Syrian armed forces to secure the borders of the Afrin area,” they said in a statement Thursday.

This is while Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has described US-sponsored Kurdish armed elements as “traitors” to the nation but has also denounced Turkish incursions as an act of aggression.

The Syrian government has given a degree of authority to the Kurdish regions to run their own affairs in the face of a foreign-backed militancy. The US, however, has used the vacuum to establish a foothold in those regions with the help of militants.

The Turkish offensive in northwest Syria’s Afrin region against the Kurdish YPG militia has opened a new front in the multi-sided Syrian civil war but has strained ties with NATO ally Washington. The United States has about 2,000 troops in Syria, officially as part of the international coalition against ISIS terrorist group.

In Afrin operation so far, Turkey says 14 of its soldiers and allied rebels have been killed, while the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) says 58 pro-Turkish rebels and 53 SDF/YPG fighters have been killed. Turkey put the number of Kurdish and pro-Kurdish fighters killed at over 300.