Turkey says it has "successfully"
ended its seven-month Euphrates Shield military campaign in northern Syria.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim made
the announcement at a meeting of the country's security council.
He did not rule out new military
operations and did not say whether Turkish troops would now leave Syria.
Turkey launched the offensive last
August to push Islamic State militants away from its border and also to stop
the advance of local Kurdish fighters.
The Turkish operation was also aimed
at preventing Kurdish YPG militias from crossing the Euphrates River westwards
and linking up with mainly Kurdish areas there.
Ankara is concerned that Syrian
Kurds will try to establish self-ruling territories similar to Iraq's
autonomous Kurdish region.
It considers YPG units to be the Syrian
extension of the Kurdish PKK group, which has been fighting an insurgency in
south-eastern Turkey for decades.
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