Mar 7, 2018

Turkey on Wednesday asked the United States to stop Kurdish militia forces deemed "terrorists" by Ankara from moving to Syria's Afrin region to battle against Turkish military operation.

The Turkish army on January 20 launched an operation against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) militia in their enclave of Afrin near the border.

The Pentagon said on Monday Turkey's Afrin offensive caused an "operational pause" in their operations against the Islamic State (IS) group.

"The US is expected to step in to stop YPG/PYD forces shifting -- under US control -- from Manbij to Afrin," Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said in televised remarks.

"This is our most natural right. Whether they do it or not is a separate question but we have taken all the necessary measures on the ground," he said.