Erdogan vows to defeat terror groups

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday vowed to devote equal energy to combating Islamic State militants and Syrian Kurdish fighters, on the fifth day of a major offensive that has left dozens dead.
“We will make any kind of contribution to the work to clear Daesh (IS) from Syria,” Erdogan told a rally in the southern city of Gaziantep, near the Syrian border.
“For the issue of the PYD (Democratic Union Party) terror group in Syria, we have just the same determination,” he added, referring to the main pro-Kurdish party in northern Syria and its People’s Protection Units (YPG) militia.
Yesterday, Turkish forces ramped up their offensive, with Turkish warplanes and artillery pounding areas held by pro-Kurdish forces close to a town liberated from IS recently.
Ankara said its raids had killed 25 Kurdish “terrorists” and that the army was doing everything it could to avoid civilian casualties.
 Addressing thousands of flag-waving supporters in Gaziantep, Erdogan said he was “ready and determined to clear our region of terror groups”.
 “We will absolutely not allow any terror activity on or near our borders.”
 Gaziantep is the city where a suicide bomber blew himself up in the middle of a wedding party last week, killing 55 people.
 Turkey blamed the attack on the Islamic State group. Erdogan reaffirmed a previous statement that the bomber was a child aged just 14.
 Days later Ankara launched the two-pronged Syria operation with the stated aim of clearing the border area of both IS and the Kurdish fighters.
 Turkey sees the PYD and YPG  groups - which have links to Kurdish rebels in southeast Turkey - as terror groups and wants to keep them from taking control of the border on the Syrian side.
Ankara says the YPG has broken a promise made to the US to go back across the Euphrates River after advancing westwards earlier this month.
Yesterday, the first Turkish casualty in the operation was flown home from Gaziantep for burial in his home province of Duzce on the Black Sea.
Erdogan also met relatives of the victims of the August 20 suicide bombing in Gaziantep.