‘PREPARED FOR THE WORST’
Donald Trump vows to ‘obliterate’ Turkey’s economy if it carries out feared Srebrenica-style genocide of Kurds in Syria after he let them invade
DONALD Trump has vowed to "obliterate" Turkey's economy if the country carries out a massacre of Kurdish civilians in Syria.
The US president issued the warning after his sudden decision to withdraw from the war-ravaged country sparked fears of widespread genocide.
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Turkish President Tayyip Erogdan will now be allowed to move in across the Syrian border, where Kurdish-controlled prisons are filled with ISIS jihadis.
Trump has now called on Turkey to keep control of the captured fighters and their families after facing backlash from the United Nations and the Kurds - a major ally in the Middle East.
The US leader tweeted today: "As I have stated strongly before, and just to reiterate, if Turkey does anything that I, in my great and unmatched wisdom, consider to be off limits, I will totally destroy and obliterate the Economy of Turkey (I’ve done before!)
"They must, with Europe and others, watch over the captured ISIS fighters and families.
"The US has done far more than anyone could have ever expected, including the capture of 100% of the ISIS Caliphate.
"It is time now for others in the region, some of great wealth, to protect their own territory. THE USA IS GREAT!”
The Srebrenica massacre
During the Bosnian War between 1992 to 1995, the Serb army was part of a massive ethnic-cleansing operation.
Thousands of Muslims sought refuge in Srebrenica, which the UN was protecting with Dutch forces.
But the area fell in July 1995 during a Serb offensive led by General Ratko Mladic with approximately 20,000 Muslims - mostly women and children - seeking safety in the Dutch compound in nearby Potocari.
Serb forces then transported Muslim men to sites around the Srebrenica enclave in eastern Bosnia and gunned them down before
dumping their bodies into mass graves.
They slaughtered 8,000 Muslim men and boys in Europe’s worst mass murder since the Holocaust.
"Butcher of Bosnia" Ratko Mladic was jailed for life by a UN court after being found guilty of genocide and crimes against humanity in 2017.
Former Bosnian Serb warlord Radovan Karadzic was caged for life in March this year after being convicted over the massacre.
The decision to remove troops from Syria has led to the United Nations warning of a repeat of a massacre similar to Srebrenica, where 8,000 Muslims were killed by Bosnian Serb forces in 1995.
UN officials said they were "preparing for the worst", while Kurds have accused Trump of abandoning them.
They say the White House has turned its back on the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) - longtime allies in fighting ISIS - to face the might of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's armies alone.
It is now feared the Kurds will follow through with their threats to release 15,000 jihadi prisoners if the Turkish military invade.
The Kurdish-led fighters have been the main US-backed force in Syria in the fight against ISIS.
In March, the group captured the last sliver of land held by the extremists, marking the end of the so-called caliphate that was declared by ISIS's leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2014.
It is still unclear how extensive the Turkish operation will be, or whether Turkish forces would clash with the US-backed Kurds.
However, observers are already saying it is a development that could jeopardise the counter-terrorism gains achieved by the American military in the fight against ISIS in recent years.
The move also drew immediate outrage from some of the president's closest allies in Congress, with Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham calling the decision "a disaster."
Trump's controversial decision was confirmed in an extraordinary statement following a call between him and President Erdogan.
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The US said it will remove all of its forces from the "immediate area"; and will not be involved in the Turkish operation.
"Turkey will soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation into Northern Syria," the White House said.
"The United States Armed Forces will not support or be involved in the operation, and United States forces, having defeated the ISIS territorial 'Caliphate,' will no longer be in the immediate area."
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US pulls its troops from border between north-eastern Syria and Turkey ahead of Turkish military operation against Kurdish-led militia alliance
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