Reuters, Aug 25, 2016 – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry told Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Thursday that Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters were retreating to the east of the Euphrates River, Turkish Foreign Ministry sources said.

In an early morning call, the two emphasized that the fight against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq would continue together, the sources said.

Turkey says has ‘every right to intervene’ if no Syrian Kurd withdrawal

Syrian rebels backed by Turkish special forces, tanks and warplanes entered one of Islamic State’s last strongholds on the Turkish-Syrian border on Wednesday, in Turkey’s first major U.S.-backed incursion into its southern neighbor.

Kurdish fighters from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) walk along a street in the southeast of Qamishli city, Syria, April 22, 2016.