Mike Pence Announces Temporary Ceasefire With Turkey

VP Mike Pence and President Erdogan announced a ceasefire—but Turkey may have already broken it.

Vice President Mike Pence announced Thursday that he and President Erdogan of Turkey agreed on a temporary ceasefire, a move that comes amid a rising death toll in Syria. But, according to local officials, Turkey has already violated the terms.

The agreement included halting Turkey’s attacks on northern Syria for 120 hours so that Kurdish forces can withdraw.

“All military operations will be paused, and Operation Peace Spring will be halted entirely on completion of the withdrawal,” he said in a news conference from Ankara, Turkey. “Our administration has already been in contact with Syrian defense forces and we've already begun to facilitate their safe withdrawal from the nearly 20-mile-wide safe zone area south of the Turkish border in Syria.”

After the announcement, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the deal was “not a ceasefire” and that they’d only halt for 120 hours “in order for the terrorists to leave,” referring to the Kurdish forces. Cavusoglu also said they would only stop the operation if their “conditions are met.”

However, Kurdish forces told CNN that force and artillery fire were already reported in the border town of Ras al-Ain, just a day after Pence announced the deal.

“SDF are committed to the ceasefire, but from last night until this morning we are seeing shelling on Ras al-Ain by the Turkish military and its mercenaries on SDF and civilian Kurdish targets, and in particular on the Ras al-Ain hospital in the city this morning," SDF Press Commander Merivan Qamishlo said.

The violent airstrikes from Turkey came at the heels of Trump ordering all U.S. troops out of the border area as the conflict between Syrian Kurds, who make up the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), and Turkish forces escalated. This left them without protection from a Turkish invasion.