Netanyahu said that the current focal point of aggression in the region is... Iran,... which is constantly arming itself, has recently downed an... American drone... and attacked ...Saudi oil facilities,... and threatens constantly to... “wipe us off the map.”...
“Time after time ...Iran... tries to... attack... us,” he said, “and therefore we must stand ready to protect ourselves against this danger.”
Turkish communication director... Fahrettin Altun..., who serves under Turkish President Recep
...Erdogan,... slammed... Netanyahu..... on social media... on Thursday for offering to assist the ..Kurds....
"Empty words of a disgraced politician looking at many years in prison on bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges,” Altun said.
“The ...Syrian Kurds..., including the ...300,000 exiles... in Turkey,... are under Turkish protection. We will eliminate all terrorists in the area and help... Syrians return home,” ...he added.
US Republican Senator... Lindsey Graham of South Carolina... tweeted his agreement with Netanyahu’s words. “Turkey’s invasion of northern Syria... attacking... one of ...America’s... most reliable allies – the Kurds -- is a... nightmare for the US and Israel,” ...he said.
Turkey pounded... Kurdish militia... in northeast Syria for a second day on Thursday, forcing... tens of thousands of people... to flee and killing dozens, in a... cross-border assault on U.S.... allies that has turned the Washington establishment against Donald Trump.
The Turkish offensive against the U.S.-allied... Syrian Democratic Forces,... launched days after Trump pulled U.S. troops out of the way, opens one of the bigges...t new fronts in years in an eight-year-old civil war that has drawn in global powers....
At least ...23 fighters... with the... Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)... and ...six fighters with a Turkish-backed... Syrian rebel... group... had been killed..., said the... Syrian Observatory... for Human Rights, which monitors Syria's eight-year-old war.
The SDF said Turkish air strikes and shelling had also ...killed nine civilians.... In an apparent attempt by Kurdish-led forces to retaliate, mortar fire from Syria killed... three people including a child... in the Turkish border town of ...Akcakale,... hospital and security sources said.
The International Rescue Committee said 64,000 people in Syria have fled since the campaign began, the Observatory said. The towns of Ras al-Ain and Darbasiya, some 60 km (37 miles) to the east, have been largely deserted as a result of the attack.
The Observatory said Turkish forces had seized two villages near Ras al-Ain and five near the town of Tel Abyad.
An official affiliated with Kurdish-led fighters in northeast Syria on Thursday repeated a call to impose a no-fly zone amid a Turkish offensive in the area.
"We ask for no-fly zone over our area. At least we will not have civilian casualties then," Sinam Mohamad, the U.S. co-chair of the Syrian Democratic Council, the SDF's political arm, told reporters.
A senior Kurdish official warned that Islamic State militants could break out of prisons in northeast Syria as fighting intensifies.
Badran Jia Kurd told Reuters the number of security forces guarding the IS detainees would have to be reduced.
"This attack will definitely reduce and weaken the guarding system for those Daesh militants in the prisons," he said, using the Arabic acronym for Islamic State.
"This could lead to their escape or to behaviors that may get out of the control of the security forces," added Jia Kurd, adviser to the Kurdish-led authority running much of north and east Syria.
"The number of forces guarding the prisons is reduced the more the battles intensify. This poses a grave danger,” he said.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan told members of his AK Party in Ankara that 109 militants had been killed so far. Kurds said they were resisting the assault.
Taking aim at the European Union and Arab powers Saudi Arabia and Egypt, which have voiced opposition to the operation, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said those objecting to Turkey's actions were "not honest".
He threatened to permit Syrian refugees in Turkey to move to Europe if EU countries described his forces' move as an occupation.
"Hey European Union, pull yourself together. I say it again. If you try to label this operation as an invasion, it's very simple, we will open the gates and send 3.6 million refugees your way."
To Saudi Arabia, Erdogan suggested that the country leaders “should look into the mirror. Who brought Yemen to this state? Look at its current condition. Did tens of thousands of people not die in Yemen? Hey Saudi Arabia, give account for this first. "You cannot comment on our move for the unity and solidarity of Syria."
To Egypt, he said, "Egypt, you can't talk at all. You are a country with a democracy killer."
NATO-ally Turkey has said it intends to create a "safe zone" for the return of millions of refugees to Syria. But world powers fear Turkey's action could intensify the conflict, and runs the risk of Islamic State prisoners escaping from camps amid the chaos.
Turkey's operation began days after a pullback by U.S. forces from the border, and senior members of U.S. President Donald Trump's own Republican Party condemned him for making way for the incursion and abandoning Syrian Kurds, loyal allies of Washington in the fight against Islamic State in Syria.
Turkish authorities on Thursday started investigations into leaders of the pro-Kurdish opposition and detained 21 people for criticizing the military offensive against a Kurdish militia in northeast Syria, state-owned Anadolu news agency said.
On Thursday, 21 people were detained in the southern province of Mardin for their social media posts.