Turkey 'won't stop' Syria operation despite 'threats': Erdogan
Istanbul: Turkey will not stop its operation against Kurdish militants in northern Syria, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday, dismissing what he called "threats" from other countries.
"Whatever some may say, we will not stop this step that we have taken," Erdogan said in a speech in Istanbul. "Now there are threats coming from left and right, telling us to stop this," he added.
"We will not step back... We will continue this fight until all the terrorists go south of the 32-kilometre (20 mile) limit from our border that Mr Trump himself mentioned."
Turkey launched an operation on Wednesday against the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in northern Syria that it considers a "terrorist" off-shoot of Kurdish insurgents in its own territory.
It aims to establish a buffer zone to keep the YPG away from its border -- an idea that was first publicly mooted by US President Donald Trump at the start of the year.
However, Trump and other Western allies have heavily criticised this week's offensive by Turkey, since they had used the YPG as the key frontline force in the battle against the Islamic State group in recent years.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Six bodies recovered so far from site of Arunachal accident, many still missing
Itanagar (PTI): Six bodies were retrieved on Friday from the deep gorge in Arunachal Pradesh's Anjaw district, where a mini-truck on which 22 people from Assam were travelling fell, police said.
The operation was initiated by a joint team of the NDRF and Army at the first light of day, Anjaw SP Anurag Dwivedi informed.
"The retrieval process was extremely difficult because of the treacherous terrain. The gorge is very deep," he said.
Eighteen bodies have been spotted at the site, and the search for the remaining three missing would continue after the retrieval of these bodies, he said.
The operation to retrieve the rest of the bodies will resume on Saturday morning, he added.
ALSO READ: Nine killed, 23 injured as bus falls off ghat road in Andhra Pradesh
All those travelling in the vehicle were labourers from Assam's Tezpur district. The accident happened on the evening of December 8, around 40 km from Hayuliang towards Chaglagam.
On the evening of December 10, one survivor managed to climb out of the gorge and reach a nearby Border Roads Task Force (BRTF) labour camp. The officer commanding the BRTF subsequently alerted the district authorities, officials said.
State Disaster Management Secretary Dani Salu said that, considering the extremely treacherous terrain and unreliable weather, a rescue attempt on the night of December 10 was deemed unsafe.
He said the next day, the Army, BRTF, local police, and district administration launched a full-scale operation to retrieve the bodies.
Salu said the identities of 18 bodies have been established so far.
He said the mini-truck was privately owned, and the labourers were being transported by a private contractor.
"The private contractor has been taken to the police station for questioning," he said.
Mourning the loss of lives in the accident, Chief Minister Pema Khandu lauded the Army, BRO, the NDRF, and the local administration for their swift response to the crisis in such a challenging terrain.
