NATO appeals on Turkey for restraint in Syria
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NATO's chief is urging Turkey to limit its use of force in northern Syria where its troops are battling a Kurdish militia that has been a top US ally in the fight against the Islamic State group.
Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday that he had discussed developments in the region with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and other NATO allies.
Stoltenberg noted that Turkey is an ally "that suffers the most from terrorism" and said that "all nations have the right to defend themselves, but this has to be done in a proportionate and measured way."
The United States has by far the biggest defense budget of any of NATO's 29 allies and wields most political influence, while Turkey has one of the alliance's biggest armies.
Tensions between them are an embarrassment for NATO, but Stoltenberg has refrained from criticizing either country and suggests it is a bilateral issue because the alliance has no troops on the ground in Syria.
