Mike Pompeo says Donald Trump prepared to use military action against Turkey

President Trump and secretary of state Pompeo
Getty Images
Tim Baker21 October 2019

Mike Pompeo has said president Donald Trump is willing to use “kinetic or military action” against Turkey.

The US Secretary of State was speaking to US TV station CNBC about Turkey's assault on Kurds in northern Syria earlier this month.

Mr Trump and the US at large has been criticised for pulling out of the area, with many believing they abandoned Kurds who had helped defeat ISIS.

Once the US started to pull out, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered troops into the region.

 US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
AFP/Getty Images

A ceasefire has since been negotiated, but tensions are still high.

The US and Turkey are both members of NATO, an international military alliance that includes the UK.

Mr Pompeo said on Monday: “We prefer peace to war.

“But in the event that kinetic action or military action is needed, you should know that president Trump is fully prepared to undertake that action.”

Turkey's nearly two-week offensive displaced some 300,000 people and led to 120 casualties among civilians. There were 470 among Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Force fighters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said on Sunday.

Many members of ISIS that had been captured after the caliphate collapsed managed to escape their prisons once US resources were taken out of the region.

Turkey says 765 terrorists but no civilians have been killed in its offensive.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in