The United States is urging Turkey not to engage in any invasion of the Syrian city Afrin and wants Ankara to remain focused on defeating the Islamic State, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said during a press briefing on Thursday.
"We would call on, certainly on the Turks, to not take any actions of that sort," Naurt said when asked about reports that Turkey is considering an invasion of Afrin. "We want everyone there to keep their eye … on the ball. The focus needs to be on ISIS."
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Saturday that Turkey was prepared to launch a campaign in Syria's Manbij and Afrin regions. In recent days Turkey has deployed tanks near the border with Syria across from the Afrin region.
These areas are controlled by the US-backed Kurdish People's Protection Units YPG. Washington has become closely allied with the Syrian Kurds, who served as the main U.S. proxies on the ground in Syria.
