(Bloomberg) -- Turkey gave Kurdish fighters until late Tuesday to leave a narrow strip of territory in northeastern Syria or face becoming targets, putting aside for now its demand for the militia to withdraw from a much longer “safe zone.”
The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces must exit the 120-kilometer (75-mile) area between the Syrian border towns of Tal Abyad and Ras al-Ayn by 10 p.m. local time on Tuesday, a senior Turkish military official said, requesting anonymity.
Turkey still wants the Kurds to withdraw from a swath of frontier territory more than 440 km long and 32 km deep, but recognizes that won't happen before the expiry of a 120-hour truce negotiated by the U.S. last week, said the official.
So far, 125 SDF vehicles have left the zone between the two towns in coordination with the U.S., the official said, adding that Turkey plans to set up observation points manned by combat units in the zone.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's due to travel to Sochi on Tuesday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin that might dictate what happens next. Russia wields major influence in Syria since its military intervened to swing the country's civil war strongly in favor of Bashar al-Assad's regime.
To contact the reporters on this story: Firat Kozok in Ankara at fkozok@bloomberg.net;Selcan Hacaoglu in Ankara at shacaoglu@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lin Noueihed at lnoueihed@bloomberg.net, Mark Williams
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