Led coalition patrols Turkey-Syria border

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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".

A convoy of Turkish military vehicles has relocated to a base near the Syrian border as tensions with US -backed Kurdish militants escalate.

"We will bring this up when we meet Mr President on May 16", said Erdogan.

But Washington views YPG as its most effective ground partner in the fight against Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria. "The YPG, and you know who's supporting them, is attacking us with mortars".

"We are seriously concerned to see USA flags in a convoy that has YPG rags on it", Erdogan told reporters at Istanbul's Ataturk Airport before leaving for a two-day visit to India.

Both Turkey and the US list the PKK as a terrorist organization, but the USA insists that its militia partners in Syria are a separate group from the PKK guerillas fighting Turkey. Last week, Turkish airstrikes targeted Kurdish PKK forces in northern Iraq and Syria, resulting in 70 deaths, and incensing the U.S.

According to the New York Times, Turkey informed the US less than an hour in advance before it carried out the bombing raids in the airspace over northern Syria and Iraq.

Together the United States can "turn Raqa into a graveyard for Daesh (IS)", Erdogan said on Saturday.

'We won't provide a date and time for when we'll come.

The targets hit by the Turkish Air Force in Syria also include local television and a YPG broadcasting media station.

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Turkey's President Erdogan has threatened further airstrikes on Kurdish forces in Syria, Al Jazeera reports.

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.

Until nowm the dispute has held up any joint US-Turkish operation to seize Raqqa and Mr Erdogan is clearly hoping for a breakthrough at his meeting with Mr Trump.

He expressed regret that the US-YPG alliance - which began under former president Barack Obama - was being continued under the new US administration.

A senior Kurdish official, Ilham Ahmad, also told AP that the USA forces began patrolling the border region Thursday in addition to their reconnaissance flights in the area.

The YPG and the Peshmerga in Iraq said at least 20 of their fighters were killed in the strikes Tuesday.

Masrour Barzani, a top Kurdish security official in the Iraqi autonomous region, said that the Turkish attack on Mount Sinjar came as a surprise.

The Turkish military said the strikes were meant to prevent the PKK from sending terrorists, arms, ammunition and explosives to Turkey.

The SDF retook Manbij from IS control, and Turkey said it won't allow the town to be under Kurdish control, threatening to move on it.

"We hope that this military mobilization is not meant to provoke our forces or for another objective linked to entering Syrian territories". President Recep Tayyip Erdogan once tried to negotiate peace with the PKK but is now in a political partnership with Turkey's ultranationalist party, a coalition that precludes any return to the peace process.

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