PRESIDENT ASH CARTER: Turkey and Syrian Kurdish forces ‘should stop fighting’

“We have called upon Turkey … to stay focused on the fight against ISIL and not to engage Syrian Defence Forces (SDF), and we have had a number of contacts over the last several days,” Carter said.

“We have called on both sides to not fight with one another, to continue to focus the fight on ISIL … That is the basis of our cooperation with both of them – specifically not to engage.”

The SDF is a group of fighters formed to fight against ISIL and is led by the YPG.

Turkey said on Monday it would continue to target the YPG if it failed to retreat east of the Euphrates River.

ISIS is a problem for Ankara, but the Kurds are the enemy.