Turkey is "heading in the wrong direction" with its incursion into Syria and deal with Russia to jointly patrol a "safe zone" there, US Defense Secretary Mark Esper warned Thursday.
"Turkey put us all in a very terrible situation" by sweeping into northern Syria this month to fight Kurds allied with the US in the fight against ISIS, Esper told a conference in Brussels ahead of a NATO defense ministers' meeting.
The onus was on Turkey's NATO allies to now "work together to strengthen our partnership with them, and get them on the trend back to being the strong reliable ally of the past," he said.
The issue of Turkey's military operation in Syria is set to dominate the two-day NATO meeting, with diplomats in the organization saying "frank" discussions with Ankara's representatives have already taken place.
Esper defended the US decision to pull US forces out of northern Syria, effectively opening the path to the Turkish operation.
"The US decision to withdraw less than 50 soldiers from the zone of attack was made after it was made very clear to us that President (Recep Tayyip) Erdogan made the decision to come across the border," he said, adding that he would not "jeopardize the lives of those servicemen" nor "start a fight with a NATO ally".
Kurdish forces have begun withdrawing from areas near the Turkish border in Syria, the Interfax news agency cited Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin as saying on Thursday.
Moscow told the Kurdish forces to withdraw from the border on Wednesday as part of an agreement struck between Moscow and Ankara that will see Syrian and Russian forces deploy to northeast Syria.
"We note with satisfaction that the agreements reached in (the southern Russian city of) Sochi are being implemented," Vershinin was quoted as saying.
Earlier RIA news agency, citing a defense ministry source, reported that Russia would send a further 276 military policemen and 33 units of military hardware to Syria in a week.
Moscow has already deployed some military police to the Turkey-Syria border area under Tuesday's agreement reached between presidents Vladimir Putin and Erdogan.
