Turkey declares Manbij and Euphrates operations

Turkey's Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said that Turkish army is preparing for a military operation in Syria.

"Now we have Manbij and the east of the Euphrates in front of us. We are working intensively on this subject," Anadolu Agency cited Akar as saying.

"Right now it is being said that some ditches, tunnels were dug in Manbij and to the east of the Euphrates. They can dig tunnels or ditches if they want, they can go underground if they want, when the time and place comes they will buried in the ditches they dug. No one should doubt this," he said during a visit to a Qatari-Turkish joint military base in Doha.

This is Ankara’s first official statement after the U.S. announced the decision to withdraw troops from Syria.