As fighting continued Friday near the Turkish-Syrian border, President Trump minimized the situation and defended the temporary ceasefire deal the US cut with Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan.

“Just spoke to President @RTErdogan of Turkey. He told me there was minor sniper and mortar fire that was quickly eliminated. He very much wants the ceasefire, or pause, to work. Likewise, the Kurds want it, and the ultimate solution, to happen,” he wrote in a series of tweets.

”Too bad there wasn’t this thinking years ago. Instead, it was always held together with very weak bandaids, & in an artificial manner. There is good will on both sides & a really good chance for success. The US has secured the Oil, & the ISIS Fighters are double secured by Kurds & Turkey,” he continued.

He then said that some European countries, without naming them, were no willing to take back ISIS fighters who came from Europe.

“I have just been notified that some European Nations are now willing, for the first time, to take the ISIS Fighters that came from their nations. This is good news, but should have been done after WE captured them. Anyway, big progress being made!!!!” he declared.

“DEFEAT TERRORISM!” he wrote in another tweet before turing his attenion to domestic politics and the House impeachment inquiry.

“Can you believe I am doing this important work for our Country, and have to deal with Corrupt Adam Schiff and the Do Nothing Democrats at the same time? It was not intended to be this way for a President!” Trump asserted, the morning after he delivered an 87-minute campaign speech in Dallas.

The president amplified his remarks later at the White House after speaking with two female American astronauts — the first all-female spacewalking team in history.

“I just spoke to President Erdogan. Turkey, we’re doing very, very well with Turkey. We have ISIS totally under guard. Turkey is also … they are watching over everything,” he said.

“So you have the Kurds who were dealing with and are very happy about the way things are going, I must say, the Kurds, and you also have the Turks watching, so we are [keeping] ISIS under control.”

Shelling could be heard at the border on Friday morning despite the five-day cease-fire, and Washington revealed that the deal covered only a small part of the territory Ankara aimed to seize.

Reuters journalists at the border heard machine-gun fire and shelling and saw smoke rising from the Syrian border battlefield city of Ras al Ain, although the sounds of fighting had subsided by mid-morning.

The truce, announced on Thursday by Vice President Pence after talks in Ankara with Erdogan, sets out a five-day pause to let the Kurdish-led SDF militia withdraw from an area controlled by Turkish forces.

But despite Trump’s contention that they were happy, Kurdish officials said Turkey was not abiding by the cease-fire called for international monitors to step in to guarantee the truce.

“We call on the United Nations, the Security Council, the Arab League and, in particular, the United States of America – as the mediator and supervisor of this agreement – to do their responsibility and send international observers in order to maintain the agreement and the temporary ceasefire,” the Syrian Democratic Council, the political arm of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, said in a statement, according to Rudaw, a Kurdish news site.

Seven civilians have been reported killed and more than 21 injured in Sari Kani since the cease-fire was brokered.

“The shelling still continues, preventing access to the injured and relief to civilians,” the SDC stated.

The SDF and Turkey interpret the truce agreement differently.

Kurds argue it means a ceasefire in areas where clashes are ongoing with no withdrawal of their forces, while Turkey and the US say the Kurdish forces have to retreat about 20 miles and abandon their heavy weapons, the website reported.

The text of the agreement also says Turkish forces will control the safe zone that Turkey aims to establish along the border.

The SDF said air and artillery attacks continued to target its positions and civilian targets in Ral al Ain.

“Turkey is violating the ceasefire agreement by continuing to attack the town since last night,” SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali tweeted.

While Trump has praised the deal, Turkey cast it as a complete victory in its campaign to control a strip of territory stretching hundreds of miles along

the border and 20 miles deep into Syria, to drive out fighters from the YPG, the SDF’s main Kurdish component.

But the US special envoy for Syria, James Jeffrey, said the agreement covered only a smaller area where Turkish forces were already operating, without giving details of how far along the border Washington believed it stretched.

The Turkish assault came after Trump told Erdogan in a phone call that the US would pull back troops in the area.