Turkey says military will enter Syria 'shortly'

A Turkish army tank.
(Image credit: Bulent Kilic/AFP/Getty Images)

The Turkish military, supported by the Free Syrian Army, will cross the border into Syria "shortly" in an attempt to take over areas now held by Kurdish fighters, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's communications director Fahrettin Altun said Tuesday night.

The Kurds have "two options," Altun tweeted. "They can defect or we will have [to] stop them from disrupting our counter-ISIS efforts." The Kurds are U.S. allies, and their Syrian Democratic Forces helped drive the Islamic State out of Syria; they are now guarding about 12,000 ISIS prisoners.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia is night editor for TheWeek.com. Her writing and reporting has appeared in Entertainment Weekly and EW.com, The New York Times, The Book of Jezebel, and other publications. A Southern California native, Catherine is a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.