Turkey 'successfully' ends military campaign in northern Syria, will meet US Sec. of State Tillerson on Thurs., March 30. Turkey wants US to drop its alliance with Kurdish fighters, but US says Kurds are the most effective force-BBC

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3/29/17, "Turkey ends Euphrates Shield military campaign in Syria," BBC (map posted below) 

"Turkey says it has "successfully" ended its seven-month Euphrates Shield military campaign in northern Syria. 

But Prime Minister Binali Yildirim did not rule out new military operations and did not say whether Turkish troops would now leave Syria.

Turkey launched the offensive last August to push Islamic State militants away from its border and also to stop the advance of local Kurdish fighters.

On Thursday, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is due to visit Turkey....Later on Thursday, Mr Tillerson will meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other senior Turkish officials in Ankara.

His visit comes as bilateral relations have plummeted in the past 18 months, the BBC's Mark Lowen in Turkey reports. Disagreements are growing, principally over who should be involved in retaking the Syrian stronghold of Raqqa from IS [ISIS]. 

Turkey wants the US to drop its alliance with Kurdish fighters, but Washington says they are the most effective force, our correspondent says.

The Turkish government is also expected to push Mr Tillerson on its extradition request for Fethullah Gulen, the cleric living in Pennsylvania whom Ankara blames for last year's attempted coup. 

The US insists it remains a judicial, rather than political decision."

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Added: Clicking on BBC headline, "Syrians see signs of hope after years of war," refers readers to above article about Turkey ending part of its campaign in Syria:

3/29/17, "Syrians see signs of hope after years of war," BBC 

"Throughout Thursday the BBC is seeking to uncover what it’s like to live with war as it reports on what’s going on in different parts of Syria – the news which doesn't make the international headlines."

Read more: 

Turkey ends Euphrates Shield military campaign in Syria 
 

Map of Turkey-Syria border area from BBC

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Comment: The positive BBC headline above about Syria is probably going to get some poor schlub fired. BBC headlines about Syria have long been famously negative.



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