Trump hits back at Turkey over Kurds, says he will devastate it economically

Washington, Jan 14: US President Donald Trump is never short of adding spice to narratives. After Washington started dilly-dallying over its withdrawal of troops from war-ravaged Syria, regional power Turkey got impatient since it was planning to launch an offensive against the Kurds in northern Syria who have the backing of the US in fighting the Islamic State. Turkey regards the People's Protection Units (YPG) as terrorists.

The US sought safety for the Kurds first and now Trump has taken his familiar tough posturing threatening to "devastate Turkey economically" if it attacked the Kurdish forces in Syria after the American troops exited. Though the US president did not elaborate on how he would make Turkey's economy bleed if Ankara went after the Kurds.

Trump posted two tweets on Sunday, January 13, in which he also said that he did not want the Kurds instigating Turkey either.

Turkey has revealed its intention to crush American support for the group and said it would not be deterred by any threat.

Washington imposed sanctions on Turkey last August over a row over a detained US pastor, leading to sharp drop in the value of the Turkish Lira. The pastor, Andrew Brunson was released in October.