omersukrugoksu/iStock(ANKARA, Turkey) — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Twitter Wednesday morning that an operation had begun in northeast Syria, following President Donald Trump’s announcement that U.S. troops would be withdrawing.

With the operation, Erdogan wrote on Twitter in Turkish, “we will eliminate the threat of terrorism towards our country.” He added that a safe zone will be established to “ensure that Syrian refugees return to their countries.”
 
“We will protect the territorial integrity of Syria, and free the people of the region from the clutches of terror,” he wrote in Turkish.

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