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WORLD NEWS A9
                                                                                                                                    Wednesday 8 March 2017

Turkish, US, Russian military chiefs discuss Syria tensions 

Turkey’s Chief of Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar, center, U.S. Chairman                  Turkish President Recep        day that U.S. forces have       not establish coordination,
of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, left, and Rus-                 Tayyip Erdogan, address-       also taken up positions on      the risk of a conflict that
sia’s Chief of Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov and their delegations                 ing a campaign rally in the    the outskirts of Manbij to try  we would not desire can
attend a meeting in the Mediterranean coastal city of Antalya,                   Turkish capital Ankara, reit-  to keep a lid on tensions.      emerge. That’s the real aim
Turkey, Tuesday, March 7, 2017.                                                  erated his readiness to con-   Turkish Prime Minister Bi-      of the meeting.”
                                                                                 front the Kurdish forces.      nali Yildirim said the meet-    The Russian Defense Minis-
                                          (Turkish Military, Pool Photo via AP)  “We can clear Manbij to-       ings would continue on          try said in a terse statement
                                                                                 gether, then we can clear      Wednesday.                      that the military chiefs
                                                                                 Raqqa together,” he said.      “There is a need for an ef-     talked about “the current
                                                                                 The U.S. has a few hundred     fective coordination in         situation in the fight against
                                                                                 special operations forces      the efforts to clear Syria      terrorist organizations in Syr-
                                                                                 embedded with the SDF          of all terror groups be-        ia in the context of raising
                                                                                 and wants the alliance to      cause so many countries         the efficiency of confront-
                                                                                 lead the march on Raqqa.       are involved there,” he         ing all terrorist organizations
                                                                                 The Pentagon said Mon-         told reporters. “If we can-     in the future.”q

BASSEM MROUE                      denounced other such ar-
SUZAN FRASER                      rangements as “forced
Associated Press                  displacement” and war
BEIRUT (AP) — The top gen-        crimes.
erals from Turkey, the Unit-      The Siege Watch moni-
ed States and Russia met          toring group says around
Tuesday in Turkey to dis-         400,000 people are
cuss mutual suspicions over       trapped under the con-
northern Syria military op-       stant bombardment.
erations, as Russia’s military    The surprise meeting be-
announced a two-week              tween Turkey’s Gen. Hulusi
long cease-fire between           Akar, Marine Corps Gen.
rebels and the government         Joseph Dunford, the chair-
in the suburbs of the Syrian      man of the U.S. Joint Chiefs
capital, Damascus.                of Staff, and Gen. Valery
The Russian military said         Gerasimov, the chief of the
a cease-fire has been             Russian General Staff, was
in place since Tuesday,           called to address recipro-
March 6, and will extend          cal mistrust between Turk-
until March 20, for the East-     ish-backed Syrian opposi-
ern Ghouta region outside         tion forces, U.S.-backed
Damascus, but activists           Kurdish forces, and Russian-
reported a number of air-         allied Syrian government
strikes and artillery strikes by  forces, fighting their way
government forces, killing        toward the Islamic State
two civilians.                    group’s de facto capital,
The White Helmets search-         Raqqa.
and-rescue group said             Turkey, a NATO ally, views
they dug up the bodies of         the Kurdish group that
a child and an adult from         dominates the Syria Dem-
the rubble of the strikes on      ocratic Forces as terror-
Harasta, inside the rebel-        ists and has threatened to
held Ghouta pocket.               drive them from the north-
Government forces have            ern town of Manbij, which
intensified their siege           the alliance captured from
against the civilians and         the militants last year with
rebels there since Febru-         the aid of U.S.-led coalition
ary in an effort to secure        airstrikes. Turkey and Syria
a surrender that would            meanwhile support oppo-
see part of the population        site sides in the Syrian civil
sent to exile. The U.N. has       war.
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