Washington hints at individual war crimes in northern Syria during Peace Spring

Washington hints at individual war crimes in northern Syria during Peace Spring

Nov 09 2019

ARK News: The United States expects Turkey to open an investigation into war crimes committed by its soldiers in northeastern Syria, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said Thursday.

Hoffman said Washington was aware of what was going on there.
"We are aware of the assumptions that there were individual war crimes committed in Syria," Hoffman told reporters. "We are in contact with Turkey, and we will give our information on what happened there."

Hoffman continued: We expect that (Turkey) will open an investigation, and we also expect them to hold these individuals accountable. We will continue to push them (the Turkish authorities) to do so.

On October 9, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan launched a military operation called "Spring of Peace" in northeastern Syria to "purge these territories of terrorists," referring to the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers an arm. The PKK operates within the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as part of a campaign to fight the Islamic State (banned in Russia and other countries) and secure the return of Syrian refugees hosted by Turkey.

On 22 October, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov declared the end of the Turkish military operation in northeastern Syria, following lengthy negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the Russian city of Sochi.

For its part, the Syrian authorities condemned the Turkish aggression, while Russia stressed that Turkey should avoid actions that would prevent the resolution of the Syrian conflict, which has continued since 2011.

Source: MBS News

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