Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country may take further military action against Kurdish militants in Iraq and Syria, saying USA support for such groups "must come to an end".
USA troops are now patrolling the Turkish-Syrian border, the Military Times reported Friday.
"Coalition forces are conducting joint patrols along the northeastern Syria-Turkey border to assess reports from both the [Kurdish] SDF and Turkey regarding skirmishes and cross-border fires between their respective security forces", an official from the Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) Public Affairs Office told RT via email, confirming the deployment.
The U.S. provides air cover and other support to Kurdish militants fighting against the Islamic State group.
Further clashes between Turkish and Kurdish forces in Syria could potentially undermine the USA -led war on the Islamic State group. Ankara views Washington's ally Syrian Kurds as a terror organisation and an extension of Kurdish militants waging a three-decade-long insurgency against the Turkish state.
The YPG is distrusted by Turkish-backed anti-government forces in Syria, who say the group is an ally of President Bashar al-Assad's government.
In the meantime, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has remained steadfast as he said that Turkey's operations would continue "until the last terrorist is eliminated". "We can turn up abruptly one night", he said, repeating a line from a well-known Turkish song. "We are not going to tip off the terror groups and the Turkish Armed Forces could come at any moment".
Moreover, a Syrian YPG commander on Friday told Reuters that us forces would soon be monitoring the situation along the Syria-Turkey border.
The offensive was launched in coordination with the US-led military coalition, which has purportedly been fighting Daesh extremists since 2014. "You can not play with this nation", Mr Erdogan said.
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His comments came amid rising tensions over the weekend along the border, with both Ankara and Washington moving armoured vehicles to the area.
In October, the Syriac Military Council threatened to fight Turkish forces and its Islamist proxies with the Free Syria Army banner when Turkey intervened to stop SDF advances. The problem is that Turkey is also an ally of the U.S., although over the past two years relations between Turkey and all western North Atlantic Treaty Organisation allies have deteriorated substantially for numerous familiar, and extensively discussed in the past, reasons.
Ankara is hopeful about the future of the relationship with Washington under Mr Trump after ties frayed in the final years of the Obama administration.
"The YPG, and you know who's supporting them, is attacking us with mortars".
It said that Turkey had pressed ahead with the air strikes despite United States objections and this "should serve as a warning for what could lie in store".
"We hope that this military mobilisation is not meant to provoke our forces or for another objective linked to entering Syrian territories".
The U.S. has recently shifted from working quietly behind the scenes in Syria's conflict toward overt displays of U.S. force in an attempt to shape the fight.
Turkey has repeatedly irritated North Atlantic Treaty Organisation with such actions.
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