US sabotaging war against IS terrorists, reveals Turkey
12 Feb 2018 4:46 PM GMT
Ankara: Turkey's foreign minister is assailing the United States, claiming American forces in Syria are intentionally stalling the fight against Islamic State militants as an excuse not to cut ties with Syrian Kurdish fighters as Ankara has demanded.
Mevlut Cavusoglu says US forces are leaving "pockets" with IS militants intact to justify continued cooperation with the Kurdish militia.
Cavusoglu says ties with the US are "at a critical stage" and that Washington needs to take "concrete steps" to regain Turkey's trust.
Ankara is riled over Washington's support for the Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units, or YPG -- the top US ally in the anti-IS fight.
Turkey considers the YPG a "terrorist" group linked to Kurdish insurgents within Turkey.
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due in Ankara later this week.
Meanwhile, an Iraqi court on Monday sentenced a Turkish woman and a Syrian man to life in jail over ties to the Islamic State group, a judicial spokesman said.
The woman was accused of "hiding the actions of a terrorist group to which her husband belonged", Supreme Judicial Council spokesman Abdel Sattar Bayraqdar said, referring to IS.
"The court condemned another Syrian terrorist to life in prison for belonging to IS and for taking part in attacks against Iraqi soldiers," he said.
Iraq in December declared victory against IS after a years-long battle to retake large swathes of territory the jihadists had seized in 2014.
Several hundred foreigners, both men and women, are thought to have been detained in the fighting.
An Iraqi court last month condemned to death by hanging a German woman of Moroccan origin after finding her guilty of belonging to the jihadist group.
She is believed to be the first European woman to be sentenced to death in Iraq in relation to IS.
In September last year, Iraq sentenced to death by hanging a Russian man who was captured in second city Mosul and found guilty of fighting for the group.
In December, a Swede of Iraqi origin was among 38 people executed after being convicted of "terrorism".
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