Daesh leader al-Baghdadi's death is a turning point, AK Party Spox. Çelik says
| AA Photo


The killing of the Daesh leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is a turning point and the same principled approach must continue against all terror groups, including the PKK and its Syrian offshoot the People's Protection Units (YPG), the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) spokesperson Ömer Çelik said Monday.

"Turkey was in intense coordination with the U.S. for raid targeting al-Baghdadi," Çelik said, adding that U.S. jets conducted the raid in the Operation Euphrates Shield zone.

Çelik also noted that the presence YPG terror group in Syria is not weakening Daesh, but allowing it to find room to grow.

Daesh leader al-Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. military operation in Syria, President Donald Trump announced earlier on Sunday.

Trump said in a statement from the White House that "al-Baghdadi is dead" — fulfilling the top national security priority of his administration.

Trump said al-Baghdadi, as U.S. forces closed in on him, fled into a tunnel with three of his children and detonated a suicide vest. "He was a sick and depraved man, and now he's gone," Trump said. "He died like a dog, he died like a coward."

Critical of EU policy towards Turkey's anti-terror operation in northern Syria, Çelik noted that the EU countries should come up with an action plan to protect sustainable humanitarian standards.

"Turkey is not anyone's refugee camp," he said.