Erdogan says time to 'eradicate' IS, Kurdish fighters in Syria

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday it was time to destroy "terrorist" groups that posed a threat to Syria's survival, namely the Islamic State group jihadists and Kurdish fighters.

"Daesh, the PKK and their affiliates -- which threaten the survival of Syria -- must be eradicated," he told journalists while returning from a Cairo summit, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

"It's time to neutralize the existing terrorist organizations in Syria."

Turkey views the Syrian Defense Forces (SDF) as a terror organization because it is dominated by the YPG, a Kurdish group it says is linked to PKK militants who have fought a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil.

But the US-backed force led the fight against the Islamic State group jihadists in Syria in 2019, with the SDF seen by the United States as a "crucial" to prevent a jihadist resurgence in the area.

Erdogan said his government was taking "preventive measures" against groups that posed a threat to Turkey.

"It is impossible for us to accept such a risk," he said, expressing hope Syria's new leaders would not opt to work with them.

"We do not think any power will continue to work with terrorist organizations in the upcoming period," he said.

"The heads of terrorist organizations such as IS and PKK-YPG ... will be crushed in the shortest time possible," he warned.

Erdogan also said his top diplomat Hakan Fidan would visit Damascus soon, following in the footsteps of spy chief Ibrahim Kalin who went to the Syrian capital just four days after Assad's fall and met with the HTS leadership.