Turkey’s President threatens to resume Syria offensive

Turkey's president has threatened to resume an offensive in north-east Syria unless Kurdish fighters withdraw from the border before a ceasefire ends.

Hundreds of Kurdish fighters still remain near to Syria’s northeast border despite a U.S.-brokered truce demanding their withdrawal.

Turkish troops and allied Syrian rebels attacked on 9 October to set up a 32km (20-mile) deep "safe zone" in Syria.

Turkey says Kurdish YPG militia forces, which it views as terrorists because of their links to Kurdish militants waging an insurgency in southeast Turkey, must leave a “safe zone” it wants to establish inside Syria.

Erdogan agreed to pause the assault last week at the request of the US.

The Turkish offensive began after President Donald Trump ordered US troops to leave the border area - a decision that was widely criticised by US lawmakers.

The UN says more than 176,000 people, including almost 80,000 children, have been displaced in the past two weeks in north-east Syria, which is home to some 3 million people.

Some 120 civilians have been killed in the battle, along with 259 Kurdish fighters, 196 Turkish-backed Syrian rebels and seven Turkish soldiers, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a UK-based monitoring group.

Twenty civilians have also been killed in attacks by the YPG on Turkish territory, Turkish officials say.