Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu on Saturday said the United States needed to pull its troops immediately out of the Syrian town of Manbij, another target of an ongoing military campaign against the Washington-backed Kurdish forces in Afrin. The Foreign Minister said the US must cut all ties with the terrorist group and make the Kurdish forces lay down their arms. Ankara labels the YPG, a US ally in the fight against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria, a “terror” group for its controversial ties with the PKK.
Meanwhile, eight Iraqis were killed in what appears to have been a case of friendly fire in western Anbar province early Saturday morning. The majority of those killed were members of Iraqi security forces. An Iraqi infantry brigade conducted a raid in Anbar but were accidentally targeted by coalition helicopters. An investigation has been launched into the strike that killed 8 people and injured several others.
Lastly, the Grammy awards are today but hip hop artist Drake will be boycotting the event. Drake has set a new first-week Apple Music global streaming record with more than 60 million listens on “God’s Plan” has said he won’t be attending the award show. The Canadian star said he refused to submit his music for consideration after the Grammys after they kept putting him in the rap categories which he says is due to his skin color.
