Turkish military, Syrian rebel forces to cross into Syria 'shortly': Erdogan's aide

Turkishforces, together with therebelFreeSyrianArmy, willcrosstheSyrianborder "shortly", President Tayyip Erdogan’s communications director said early on Wednesday, as a surprise withdrawal of UStroops made way for theTurkishincursion.

Turkey has been poised to advance into northeastSyriasince the UStroops began vacating the area in an abrupt policy shift by USPresident Donald Trump widely criticised in Washington as a betrayal of America's allies, the Kurds.

On Tuesday,Turkishofficials told Reuters that themilitaryhad struck theSyrian-Iraqi border to prevent Kurdishforcesusing the route to reinforce the region, though details of the strikes were hazy.

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PresidentErdogan'saideFahrettin Altun said that fighters from the Kurdish YPG militia inSyriacould either defect or Ankara would have to "stop them from disrupting" Turkey's struggle against the Islamic State militants.

"TheTurkishmilitary, together with the FreeSyrianArmy, willcrosstheTurkish-Syrianborder shortly," Altun said in a tweet extracted from a column written by him which was published in the Washington Post.

"Turkey has no ambition in northeasternSyriaexcept to neutralize a long-standing threat againstTurkishcitizens and to liberate the local population from the yoke of armed thugs," the column said.Turkey has said it intends to create a "safe zone" in order to return millions of refugees toSyriansoil, but the scheme has alarmed some Western allies as much as the risks posed by themilitaryoperation itself.

For Turkey, which views Kurdish YPG fighters in northeastSyriaas terrorists because of their ties to militants waging an insurgency inside Turkey, an influx of non-KurdishSyrians would help it secure a buffer against its main security threat.

The US withdrawal from the area will leave Kurdish-ledforceslong allied to Washington vulnerable to attack by theTurkishArmedForces(TSK).

Erdogan will visit the United States on Nov. 13 at Trump's invitation, a White House spokesman said. On Monday, Erdogan said UStroops had started to withdraw after a phone call he had with Trump, adding that talks betweenTurkishand USofficials on the matter would continue.

"Unfortunately, Turkey has chosen to act unilaterally. As a result we have moved the USforcesin northernSyriaout of the path of potentialTurkishincursion to ensure their safety," USDefense Department spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement.

Trump's decision to withdraw troops from northeastSyriahas rattled allies, including France, one of Washington's main partners in the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State.

Russia,SyrianPresident Bashar al-Assad's strongest foreign ally, said it was not told in advance by Washington or Turkey about any agreements to pull UStroops.

Amid deepening humanitarian concerns, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres urged all parties in northeastSyriato exercise maximum restraint and protect civilians.

Kurdish-ledforceshave denounced the USpolicy shift as a "stab in the back".

Signalling a further potential shift in the region's power balance, the Kurdish-ledforcessaid they might start talks with theSyriangovernment and Russia to fill a security vacuum in the event of a full USwithdrawal.

Trump denied he had abandoned the Kurdishforces, the most effective USpartners in fighting Islamic State inSyria. But he praised Turkey as a trade partner, in a softening of tone hours after threatening to "totally destroy" Turkey's economy if it acted "off limits" inSyria.

Near theTurkishborder town of Akcakale, acrossfromSyria's Tel Abyad, a Reuters witness saw howitzers placed behind earth embankments on Turkey's side of the border, pointed towardsSyria.

Some 60 km (40 miles) to the west, multiple launch rocket systems mounted on two trucks were deployed behind earth embankments near Suruc, opposite theSyrianborder town of Kobani. Artillery was also stationed in the area, and soldiers wandered around a nearbymilitarycamp.

Mustafa Bali of the Kurdish-ledSyrianDemocraticForces(SDF) said theTurkishmilitarybuildup, together with information about further mobilisation of Turkey-backedSyrianrebels, indicated that "an attack is imminent".