Turkey to fight ISIL, Syrian Kurdish militia with 'same determination': Erdoğan

ISTANBUL - Agence France-Presse

AP photo

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan vowed on Aug. 28 to devote equal energy to combatting Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militants and Syrian Kurdish fighters, on the fifth day of a major offensive.

"We will make any kind of contribution to the work to clear Daesh (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) from Syria," Erdoğan told a rally in the southern city of Gaziantep, near the Syrian border.
 
"For the issue of the PYD (Democratic Union Party) terror group in Syria, we have just the same determination," he added, referring to the main pro-Kurdish party in northern Syria and its People's Protection Units (YPG) militia.
 
On Aug. 28, Turkish forces ramped up their offensive, with Turkish warplanes and artillery pounding areas held by pro-Kurdish forces close to a town liberated from ISIL this week.
 
Ankara said its raids had killed 25 Kurdish terrorists and that the army was doing everything it could to avoid civilian casualties.

Addressing thousands of flag-waving supporters in Gaziantep, Erdoğan said he was "ready and determined to clear our region of terror groups".
 
"We will absolutely not allow any terror activity on or near our borders."  

Gaziantep is the city where a suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of a wedding party last weekend, killing 55 people.
 
Turkey blamed the attack on ISIL.

Erdoğan reaffirmed a previous statement that the bomber was a child aged just 14.    

Days later Ankara launched the two-pronged Syria operation with the stated aim of clearing the border area of both ISIL and the Kurdish fighters.
 
Turkey sees the US-backed PYD and YPG -- which have links to PKK militants in southeast Turkey -- as terror groups and wants to keep them from taking control of the border on the Syrian side.
 
The US supports the Syrian Kurdish fighters as an effective adversary of ISIL in the area.