Turkey sent reinforcements to its border with Syria, according to media outlets which reported that about 100 vehicles, including pickup trucks equipped with machine guns and weapons, were on their way to the region.
The military activity comes two days after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would postpone a planned military operation on Kurdish YPG militia in northern Syria following the US decision to withdraw its troops from Syria.
The Turkish convoy headed to the southern border province of Kilis, including tanks, howitzers, machine guns and buses carrying commandos, Demiroren News Agency (DHA) reported.
Part of the military equipment and personnel are to be positioned in posts along the border, while some had crossed into Syria via the district of el-Beyli, 45 km northwest of Manbij, according to the agency.
Reuters could not independently verify the reason for the reinforcements and Turkish officials were not immediately available for comment.
Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights told Agence-France Presse (AFP) that around 35 tanks and other heavy weapons, carried aboard tank carriers, crossed the Jarablos border crossing and headed for an area near the Sajour River, between Jarablos and Manbij, not far from the front lines where Kurdish fighters of the Manbij Military Council are stationed.
An official in a local armed faction opposed to the Syrian regime confirmed the arrival of these reinforcements. The official spoke to AFP, on condition of anonymity, stating that the Turkish forces also asked the factions loyal to it to “declare the state of alert, without asking them to go to the area to which the reinforcements were sent.”
Syrian High Negotiations Commission (HNC) said it supported Turkey in filling the vacuum that would result from the US withdrawal from Syria.
Head of HNC Nasr al-Hariri urged the US to coordinate its pull-out with the national army, composed of opposition Syrian factions.
“An uncoordinated US withdrawal may leave a void that would be filled by Daesh (ISIS), the Syrian regime or Iranian militias,” Hariri warned on Twitter.
Hariri's comments came hours after US President Donald Trump tweeted saying that: “On Syria, we were originally going to be there for three months, and that was seven years ago - we never left. When I became President, ISIS was going wild. Now ISIS is largely defeated and other local countries, including Turkey, should be able to easily take care of whatever remains. We’re coming home!”
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Sunday said nobody would be able to stop Turkey from launching an operation in the east of the Euphrates River.
Cavusoglu was speaking at a press conference with Libya's foreign minister, Mohamed Taher Siala.
Hinting at France, the Turkish FM criticized how some European countries received the representatives of the Kurds in Syria, stating that if these talks aimed to protect the Syrian Democratic Union Party and the PKK after the US withdrawal, they should not forget that no one can prevent us from clearing the area of East Euphrates.
In the same context, Cavusoglu said it was decided to postpone operation East Euphrates so as not to disturb the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, adding that Ankara will coordinate with Washington on the withdrawal process.
