Tag Archives: Middle East

Harsh Hezbollah words aim to draw ‘red lines’ for Trump: source

Lebanon's Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah addresses his supporters through a screen during a rally commemorating the annual Hezbollah Martyrs' Leaders Day in Jebshit village, southern Lebanon February 16, 2017. REUTERS/Ali Hashisho

By Laila Bassam and Angus McDowall

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The Hezbollah leader’s harsh words for Israel and U.S. President Donald Trump this week were aimed at drawing “red lines” to prevent any threatening action against Lebanon or the group, a source familiar with the group’s thinking said on Friday.

Trump and administration officials have used strong rhetoric against Hezbollah’s political patron Iran and to support its main enemy Israel, including putting Tehran “on notice” over charges it violated a nuclear deal by test-firing a ballistic missile.

Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Sunday described Trump as being an “idiot”. On Thursday he said that his group, which played a major role in ending Israel’s occupation of Lebanon, could strike its nuclear reactor at Dimona.

The harsh words for Israel and Trump were aimed at drawing “red lines” for the new U.S. administration, the source familiar with the thinking of the Lebanese Shi’ite group said.

“Until now, Hezbollah is not worried about the arrival of Trump into the U.S. administration, but rather, it called him an idiot this week and drew red lines in front of any action that threatens Lebanon or Hezbollah’s presence in Syria,” the source said.

Israel and the United States both regard Hezbollah, which dominates Lebanese politics and maintains an armed militia that has had a significant part in fighting for President Bashar al-Assad in Syria, as a terrorist organization.

The group was founded as a resistance movement against Israel’s occupation of the predominantly Shi’ite Muslim south Lebanon which ended in 2000, a role that meant Beirut allowed it to keep its arms after the country’s civil war ended in 1990.

In 2006 Israel launched another war against Hezbollah in south Lebanon but withdrew without forcing the group, which gives allegiance to the supreme leader of Shi’ite Iran, to abandon its weapons.

Lebanon’s President Michel Aoun, an ally of Hezbollah, defended the group this week, saying: “As long as the Lebanese army lacks sufficient power to face Israel, we feel the need for (Hezbollah’s) arsenal because it complements the army’s role”.

THREATS

In his speech on Sunday, Nasrallah said: “We are not worried (about Trump), but rather we are very optimistic because when there is an idiot living in the White House, who boasts of his idiocy, it is the beginning of relief for the weak of the world”.

On Thursday he urged Israel to dismantle its nuclear reactor at Dimona. Israel is widely believed to have the Middle East’s only atomic arsenal at its Dimona reactor but it refuses to confirm or deny if it is a nuclear power.

“We can turn the threat (of their nuclear capability) into an opportunity,” he said, signaling that Hezbollah could strike the Dimona reactor and other Israeli atomic sites according to the source familiar with Hezbollah thinking.

Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz said in a statement on Thursday: “If Nasrallah dares fire on the Israel’s home front or on its national infrastructure, then all of Lebanon will be hit.”

The source familiar with Hezbollah thinking said that it has been Nasrallah’s policy since the 2006 war with Israel to reveal elements of the group’s military capabilities as part of a policy of deterrence against attack by the Jewish state.

(Reporting By Laila Bassam, writing by Angus McDowall; Additional reporting by Maayan Lubell in Jerusalem)

Turkey sets out Raqqa operation plans to U.S.: report

Syrian Democratic Forces

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey has presented two proposals to the United States for how to carry out a joint military operation to drive Islamic State from its stronghold in the Syrian city of Raqqa, Turkish newspaper Hurriyet reported on Saturday.

Turkey has said repeatedly that the planned operation should be conducted by local Arab forces, possibly with support from Turkish troops, as opposed to the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Force (SDF) — an alliance dominated by Kurdish YPG militia.

Washington’s support for the SDF, which launched a campaign to encircle Raqqa in November, has caused tension with NATO-ally Turkey. Ankara views the Kurdish militia as an extension of militants fighting on its own soil.

It is not yet clear whether the new U.S. administration of President Donald Trump will provide weapons to the YPG despite Turkey’s objections. The U.S. says weapons provided to the SDF are so far limited to its Arab elements but Ankara says the arms are going to Kurdish militia and is asking for a halt.

In a meeting on Friday at Turkey’s Incirlik air base, a key hub for U.S.-led coalition against jihadists, Turkish military chief Hulusi Akar and his U.S. counterpart Joseph Dunford discussed the two Raqqa road maps, Hurriyet said, citing security sources.

Ankara’s preferred plan of action envisages Turkish and U.S. special forces, backed by commandoes and Turkey-backed Syrian rebels entering Syria through the border town of Tel Abyad, currently held by Kurdish YPG militia, the newspaper said.

The forces would effectively cut through YPG territory, before pushing on to Raqqa, which lies about 100 kilometers (60 miles) south.

Such a plan would require the United States to convince the Kurdish militia to grant the Turkey-backed forces a 20-kilometre (12-mile)-wide strip through YPG territory in order to push south, the paper said.

The SDF alliance, which includes Arab and other groups in Syria’s north as well as the YPG, controls swathes of territory along the Syria-Turkey border as they push back Islamic State.

With air strikes and special ground forces from the U.S.-led coalition, the SDF is in the middle of a multi-phased operation to surround Raqqa, Islamic State’s base of operations in Syria.

Hurriyet also said Ankara was betting on securing a Syrian and Arab force of about 9,000 to 10,000 troops for the Raqqa operation, with most coming from among the fighters being trained at two camps inside Turkey.

A second but less likely alternative outlined by Akar to Dunford was to push towards Raqqa via the Syrian town of Bab, Hurriyet reported, which Turkey-backed forces have been fighting to seize from Islamic State for the past two months.

But the long journey of 180 kilometres (about 110 miles) and mountainous terrain make that possibility less likely, it said.

(Reporting by Humeyra Pamuk; Editing by Helen Popper)

Baghdad car bomb kills 51 as Islamic State escalates insurgency

People and Iraq forces gather around car bombing sight

BAGHDAD (Reuters) – A car packed with explosives blew up on Thursday in southern Baghdad, killing at least 51 people and wounding 55, security and medical sources said, in the deadliest such attack in Iraq this year.

Islamic State, which is on the defensive after losing control of eastern Mosul to a U.S.-backed Iraqi military offensive, claimed responsibility for the bombing in an online statement.

As it cedes territory captured in a 2014 offensive across northern and western Iraq, the ultra-hardline group has stepped up insurgent strikes on government areas, particularly in the capital Baghdad.

Security sources said the vehicle which blew up on Thursday was parked in a crowded street full of garages and used car dealers, in Hayy al-Shurta, a Shi’ite district in the southwest of the city.

The death toll could climb further as many of the wounded are in critical condition, a doctor said.

The bombing is the second to hit car markets this week, suggesting the group has found it easier to leave vehicles laden with explosives in places where hundreds of other vehicles are parked.

A suicide bomber detonated a pick-up truck on Wednesday in Sadr City, a poor Shi’ite suburb in the east of the capital, killing at least 15 people. That explosion took place in a street full of used car dealers.

U.S.-backed Iraqi forces have dislodged Islamic State from most of the cities it captured in 2014 and 2015. The militants also control parts of Syria.

Iraqi government forces last month captured eastern Mosul and are now preparing an offensive on the western side that remains under the militants’ control. The city is divided in two halves by the Tigris river.

(Reporting by Maher Chmaytelli; Editing by Dominic Evans and Alison Williams)

Turkey says almost taken Syria’s Bab, war monitor cites heavy toll

rebel fighter on outskirts of al-Bab Syria

By Tulay Karadeniz and Angus McDowall

ANKARA/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Turkey’s military said on Friday it was close to taking Syria’s al-Bab from Islamic State, but a war monitor said the jihadists still controlled 90 percent of the town itself and that shelling and air strikes had killed dozens of civilians in recent days.

Al-Bab, an Islamic State stronghold 30 km (20 miles) from the Turkish border, has been a prime target since Turkey launched an incursion last August to push the jihadists from its frontier and prevent gains by a Kurdish militia also fighting them.

Taking control of the town would deepen Turkish influence in an area of Syria where it has already effectively created a buffer zone and allow Turkish forces to press on towards Raqqa, Islamic State’s de facto capital in Syria.

“The operation to gain complete control of the al-Bab region has neared its end and the resistance of the Daesh terror group has largely been broken,” the Turkish military statement said, using an Arabic acronym for Islamic State.

However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based organization that monitors the war using a network of contacts, said Turkey’s “Euphrates Shield” forces had not made much progress.

Islamic State still controls 90 percent of al-Bab town itself and Turkish shelling and air strikes had killed 45 civilians, including 18 children, during the past 48 hours, the Observatory said.

Turkish officials have repeatedly said that the al-Bab operation was taking longer than anticipated because of numbers of civilians still in the town and the care being taken not to harm them. It dropped leaflets on the town as long ago as December urging civilians to seek shelter.

Turkey believes a string of Islamic State gun and bomb attacks, including a mass shooting at an Istanbul nightclub on New Year’s Eve, were planned from al-Bab and Raqqa, and has said clearing the town of militants is a national security priority.

STRAINED ALLIANCE

The military statement came as U.S. Marine Corps General and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Joseph Dunford visited the Incirlik air base in southern Turkey, used by the U.S.-led coalition in the fight against Islamic State.

Turkey is part of that coalition but relations with NATO ally Washington have been strained by U.S. support for the Kurdish YPG militia in the fight against Islamic State.

Turkey views the YPG as a hostile force and an extension of the PKK, a Kurdish militant group that has waged an armed insurgency against the Turkish state for over three decades.

“It is time the U.S. leadership made clear who they are cooperating with in their Syria policy,” a senior Turkish government official told Reuters, when asked about the possibility of U.S. combat troops being deployed to Syria under President Donald Trump.

“U.S. soldiers are present in Syrian territory, and we saw the results. They trained the PKK-YPG, which we call a terrorist organization, gave them weapons and supported terrorist groups.”

President Tayyip Erdogan has said the next target for the Turkish offensive should be Raqqa but that Arab forces, not the YPG, should be involved.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance dominated by the YPG, is in the middle of a multi-phased operation to encircle Raqqa, backed by air strikes and special ground forces from the U.S.-led coalition.

(Additional reporting by Orhan Coskun and Ece Toksabay; Writing by Nick Tattersall; Editing by Daren Butler and Angus MacSwan)

Arab League, Egypt say Palestinian-Israeli conflict needs 2-state solution

Israeli barrier along East Jerusalem

CAIRO (Reuters) – The Palestinian-Israeli conflict requires a two-state solution, the Arab League and Egypt reaffirmed on Thursday, distancing themselves from a move away from that commitment by U.S. President Donald Trump.

The idea of a Palestinian state living side-by-side with Israel has underpinned Middle East peace efforts for decades.

But the Republican president said on Wednesday after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would accept whatever peace the two sides chose, whether it entailed two states or one.

Egypt was committed to a two-state solution, a foreign ministry spokesman told state news agency MENA.

In comments also reported by MENA, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit agreed, adding that moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem would make the Middle East more volatile.

“It requires a comprehensive and just settlement based on a two-state solution and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on … 1967 borders with its capital in Jerusalem,” it quoted Aboul Gheit as saying after meeting the U.N secretary general chief Antonio Guterres in Cairo.

Guterres told a news conference on Wednesday there was “no alternative” to the two-state solution.

In Israel, Netanyahu’s far-right political allies hailed the U.S. shift in support for a Palestinian state and shrugged off a call by Trump to curb Israeli settlements on occupied land.

(Reporting by Lin Noueihed and Omar fahmy, writing by Amina Ismail; Editing by Eric Knecht and Toby Chopra)

U.N. warns of catastrophic dam failure in Syria battle

Euphrates River at sunset in Syria

By Tom Miles

GENEVA (Reuters) – The United Nations is warning of catastrophic flooding in Syria from the Tabqa dam, which is at risk from high water levels, deliberate sabotage by Islamic State (IS) and further damage from air strikes by the U.S.-led coalition.

The earth-filled dam holds back the Euphrates River 40 km (25 miles) upstream of the IS stronghold of Raqqa and has been controlled by IS since 2014.

Water levels on the river have risen by about 10 meters since Jan. 24, due partly to heavy rainfall and snow and partly to IS opening three turbines of the dam, flooding riverside areas downstream, according to a U.N. report seen by Reuters on Wednesday.

“As per local experts, any further rise of the water level would submerge huge swathes of agricultural land along the river and could potentially damage the Tabqa Dam, which would have catastrophic humanitarian implications in all areas downstream,” it said.

The entrance to the dam was already damaged by airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition, it said.

“For example, on 16 January 2017, airstrikes on the western countryside of Ar-Raqqa impacted the entrance of the Euphrates Dam, which, if further damaged, could lead to massive scale flooding across Ar-Raqqa and as far away as Deir-ez-Zor.”

The town of Deir-ez-Zor, or Deir al-Zor, is a further 140 km downstream from Raqqa, and is besieged by IS. The U.N. estimates that 93,500 civilians are trapped in the town, and it has been airdropping food to them for a year.

The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) are undertaking a multiphased operation to encircle Raqqa, and have advanced to within a few kilometers of the dam. The SDF has previously said air strikes are not being used against IS near the dam to avoid damaging it.

As IS, also known as ISIL, retreats, its fighters have deliberately destroyed vital infrastructure, including three water stations and five water towers in the first three weeks of January, the U.N. report said.

“ISIL has reportedly mined water pumping stations on the Euphrates River which hinders the pumping of water and residents are resorting to untreated water from the Euphrates River.”

The U.N. has also warned of the danger of a collapse of the Mosul dam on the Tigris River in Iraq, which could affect 20 million people. The dam was briefly captured by IS in 2014, but remains at risk, with constant repairs needed to avoid disaster.

Last month Lise Grande, the top U.N. humanitarian official in Iraq and a trained hydrologist who is an expert on the Mosul dam, said a catastrophic burst could have “Biblical” consequences. The U.N. is preparing an international response in case the Mosul dam collapses.

(Reporting by Tom Miles; Editing by Toby Chopra)

Start of Syria talks in Kazakh capital delayed one day

UN Mediator for Syria

ASTANA (Reuters) – Talks on the Syrian crisis involving Russia, Iran and Turkey that were due to start in the Kazakh capital Astana on Wednesday have been delayed by one day, Kazakhstan’s Foreign Ministry said without giving the reason.

Syrian rebels have threatened this week to boycott the talks, accusing Russia of failing to get Damascus to comply fully with a ceasefire or take any confidence-building steps.

However, a rebel official who had attended the previous round of Astana talks in January said on Wednesday a small delegation including military and legal representatives will attend to discuss the ceasefire plan put forward last month.

An unnamed official from Russia’s Defense Ministry told the Interfax news agency that delegations would hold bilateral meetings on Wednesday before a bigger meeting of all parties on Thursday which could produce a joint document.

Kazakhstan, Moscow’s close political ally, said last week the two-day talks, to which United Nations special envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura had also been invited, would focus on consolidating the ceasefire.

Delegations of the Damascus government and the rebels who attended the previous round of talks in Astana refused to negotiate directly with each other or sign any documents at the time.

A new round of U.N.-backed peace talks is due to begin in Geneva next week.

(Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov; Additional reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

Challenge to Trump travel ban moves forward in two courts

Yemen nationals reunited with family in US

By Dan Levine

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – The most consequential legal challenge to U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban will proceed on two tracks in the next few days, including a U.S. appeals court vote that could reveal some judges who disagree with their colleagues on the bench and support the arguments behind the new president’s most controversial executive order.

In a Seattle federal courtroom, the state of Washington will attempt to probe the president’s motive in drafting his Jan. 27 order, while in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, judges will decide whether to reconsider an appeal in that same case decided last week.

Trump’s directive, which he said was necessary to protect the United States from attacks by Islamist militants, barred people from Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen from entering the country for 90 days. Refugees were banned for 120 days, except those from Syria, who were banned indefinitely.

The ban was backed by around half of Americans, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll, but triggered protests across the country and caused chaos at some U.S. and overseas airports.

U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle suspended the order after its legality was challenged by Washington state, eliciting a barrage of angry Twitter messages from Trump against the judge and the court system. That ruling was upheld by a three-judge panel at the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco last week, raising questions about Trump’s next step.

At a Seattle court hearing on Monday, Robart said he would move forward with discovery in the case, meaning the request and exchange of information pertinent to the case between the opposing parties.

Meanwhile, an unidentified judge on the 9th Circuit last week requested that the court’s 25 full-time judges vote on whether the temporary restraining order imposed on Trump’s travel ban should be reconsidered by an 11-judge panel, known as en banc review. The 9th Circuit asked both sides to file briefs by Thursday.

Since judges appointed by Democrats hold an 18-7 edge on the 9th Circuit, legal experts say it is unlikely a majority will disagree with the court’s earlier ruling and want it reconsidered.

Arthur Hellman, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law who has studied the 9th Circuit, noted that one of the three judges who issued the original ruling was appointed by George W. Bush.

Even if the en banc vote fails, however, judges on the 9th Circuit who disagree with last week’s ruling will be able to publicly express their disagreement in court filings, which could help create a record bolstering Trump’s position.

Meanwhile, the government has signaled that it is considering issuing a new executive order to replace the original one. In that case, it could tell the 9th Circuit later this week that it does not want en banc review, because the case would be moot.

“You would think Jeff Sessions would do whatever he had to do to get this case ended as soon as possible,” Hellman said, referring to the recently appointed U.S. attorney general.

Russia halted Syrian army, rebel clash in northern Syria: sources

rebel fighters gather around truck carrying food

By Laila Bassam and Humeyra Pamuk

BEIRUT/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Russia intervened to halt a clash between Syrian government forces and Turkey-backed Syrian rebels in northern Syria, sources on both sides said on Friday, the first confrontation between them as both sides fight Islamic State in the area.

Islamic State is under attack from separate campaigns in northern Syria by Russian-backed government forces and Turkey-backed rebels. The clash on Thursday near the IS-held city of al-Bab underlined the risk of the parallel offensives igniting new fighting between the government and its rebel enemies.

Russia and Turkey have backed opposing sides in the war but recently started cooperating over Syria, brokering a truce between government forces and rebels and working together to try to revive peace talks.

Rebel officials said the clash took place in a village southwest of al-Bab. An official in a military alliance fighting in support of the Syrian government confirmed a clash had taken place. “The Russians intervened to control the situation,” said the source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

President Bashar al-Assad is supported in the war by the Russian military and an array of Iranian-backed militias.

Two rebel officials accused the government forces of provoking the incident. One of them said the government forces had moved towards their positions in tanks. “Rebels shot to warn them not to get any closer, but the tank responded and a clash erupted,” said the first rebel official.

“Later on Russia intervened to calm down the situation,” said the rebel official. “This whole incident felt like a test.”

A second rebel official, a commander in the al-Bab area, added: “They opened fire. Fire was returned.”

Both rebel officials said an armored vehicle had been captured from the government forces.

There was no immediate comment from Russia.

Russian air strikes accidentally killed three Turkish soldiers on Thursday in northern Syria. It was not immediately clear whether the confrontation described by the sources had taken place in the same area as the air strike.

Turkey and its FSA rebel allies have carved out a de facto buffer zone in northern Syria in territory captured from Islamic State since August in their “Euphrates Shield” operation. They have been battling to capture al-Bab since December, but escalated their attack this week, seizing the city’s outskirts.

The Syrian army meanwhile mounted its own, rapid advance towards the city in the last few weeks, advancing to within a few kilometers (miles) of its southern outskirts.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said earlier this week that clashes with the Syrian forces had been avoided thanks to international coordination, including between Turkey and Russia.

The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had called Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and expressed his condolences over the air strike, blaming the incident on poor coordination between Moscow and Ankara.

The Kremlin spokesman said on Friday the air strikes were based on coordinates provided to Russia by the Turkish military..

(Writing and additional reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut; Editing by Dominic Evans)

Turkish-led forces advance into outskirts of Syrian city

Syrian forces gather to fight Islamic State

By Humeyra Pamuk and Tom Perry

ANKARA/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Syrian rebels backed by the Turkish military have captured the outskirts of the Islamic State-held city of al-Bab in northern Syria, the Turkish government and rebel sources said on Wednesday.

The advance threatens an important Islamic State stronghold, whose fall would deepen Turkish influence in an area of northern Syria where it has created a de facto buffer zone.

Syrian government forces have also advanced on al-Bab from the south, bringing them close to their Turkish and rebel enemies in one of the most complex battlefields of the six-year-old conflict.

But Turkey said international coordination was under way to prevent clashes with the Syrian forces.

“The al-Bab operation must be completed immediately in the period ahead … In recent days our special forces and the Free Syrian Army (rebels) have made serious progress,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told a news conference.

In a sign of Turkish momentum and confidence, the government said its next target would be the Syrian city of Raqqa, de facto capital of the embattled Islamic State group which has also been partly dislodged from its Iraqi stronghold of Mosul.

The U.S. military, which is leading an international coalition against Islamic State, said it expected Raqqa to be “completely isolated” in the next few weeks.

COORDINATION WITH RUSSIA

Al-Bab has been a major target of a Turkish offensive launched in northern Syria last August to drive Islamic State away from the border and prevent further gains by U.S.-backed Kurdish militia that are also fighting the jihadist group. The city is just 30 km (20 miles) from the Turkish border.

A Free Syrian Army rebel commander speaking to Reuters from the southeastern outskirts of al-Bab said Syrian government planes and helicopters were visible to the west of his position, saying there was now an “indirect frontline” between the sides.

But an official in a military alliance backing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said the city was being left to Turkish control, in what appeared to be part of a de facto deal with Russia, Assad’s most powerful ally.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said clashes with the Syrian forces had been avoided.

“As a result of coordination between coalition forces, the Turkish air force and Russia, necessary measures are being taken to prevent any unpleasant incidents or clashes,” Yildirim said.

Assad has been backed in the war by the Russian air force and an array of Iranian-backed Shi’ite militias. The Syrian army advance towards al-Bab is aimed at preventing deeper Turkish advances and safeguarding the city of Aleppo, 50 km (30 miles) to the southwest.

“PROGRESS IS FAST”

The Turkish military said in a statement that 58 Islamic State militants had been killed in air strikes, artillery fire and clashes. Four Turkish soldiers had been killed and at least a dozen wounded. The advancing forces had captured strategic hilltops around al-Bab, the army said.

A Syrian rebel fighter reached by Reuters said he was speaking from inside al-Bab where he said Islamic State lines were collapsing. “Praise God, the progress is fast,” he said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based organization that reports on the war, cautioned that it was not yet clear if Islamic State had collapsed entirely in the city. It said at least six people had been killed and 12 more wounded in the latest shelling there.

The organization says Turkish bombardment has killed scores of people since December. Turkey says it has been careful to avoid civilian casualties.

Islamic State is being fought by three separate military alliances in northern Syria, including the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces which incorporate the Kurdish YPG militia.

U.S. support for the YPG has angered Turkey, which views it as an extension of a Kurdish militia that is waging an insurgency in Turkey.

A spokesman for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey had presented a detailed plan to drive Islamic State out of Raqqa and discussions on the issue were under way.

Spokesman Ibrahim Kalin told broadcaster NTV there had been better coordination with the U.S.-led coalition on air strikes in the last 10 days and Ankara’s priority was to establish a safe zone between the Syrian towns of Azaz and Jarablus, which are just over the border.

The safe zone is an important goal for Ankara because it would mean that civilians displaced by the conflict could be provided for in Syria, rather than crossing into Turkey.

Turkish sources said Erdogan and U.S. President Donald Trump agreed in a phone call overnight to act jointly against Islamic State in al-Bab and Raqqa.

The White House said in a statement that Trump spoke about the two countries’ “shared commitment to combating terrorism in all its forms” and welcomed Turkey’s contributions to the fight against Islamic State, but it gave no further details.

(Additional reporting by Laila Bassam, Suleiman al-Khalidi, Nevzat Devranoglu, Gulsen Solaker, Ece Toksabay and Orhan Coskun; Editing by Mark Trevelyan and Dominic Evans)