Turkey says it helped US kill IS leader
(VOVWORLD) - Turkey and the US were engaged in intense diplomacy and exchanged views on the operation the night that US special forces conducted a mission to kill Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in northwest Syria, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Monday.
 Turkish soldiers at a position east of the northeastern Syrian town of Ras al-AIn watch as a tank fires on positions held by fighters from the Syrian Democratic Army on October 28, 2019. (Nazeer Al-khatib/AFP via Getty Images) |
Cavusoglu said Turkey has “neutralized” more than 4,000 Islamic State militants so far.
US President Donald Trump said he may declassify and release part of the video taken on Saturday of the raid in which al-Baghdadi killed himself when he was cornered in a tunnel.
Cavusoglu said that Kurdish YPG forces have not fully withdrawn from a strip of northeastern Syria under a Russia-brokered accord that is about to expire. He said if the YPG does not fulfill the agreement to pull back more than 30 km from Turkey’s border, Turkish-led forces will clear the terrorists from the area.