Turkey’s military deployed tanks and guns on the Syrian border as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan urged joint action with the Trump administration against Islamic State in its de facto capital, Raqqa. The deployment, including long-range guns and armored personnel carriers, followed Erdogan’s remark on Saturday that Turkish troops fighting to capture the
jihadists’ stronghold of al-Bab in northwest Syria could move first to the town of Manbij and then to Raqqa. The artillery reinforcements were sent to the border towns of Oguzeli and Karkamis, north of Manbij, state-run Anadolu Agency reported Sunday. Erdogan reiterated his country’s readiness to extend its fight against the jihadist group in Raqqa if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump agrees to block Kurdish forces from participating. READ MORE
