Erdogan vows to 'crush the heads' of Kurdish forces if no pullout

If the pullout does not happen by Tuesday evening, "we will start where we left off and continue to crush the terrorists' heads," Erdogan said in a televised speech in central Anatolian city of Kayseri.

Turkey has agreed to suspend its Syria offensive for five days and to end the assault if Kurdish-led forces withdraw from the proposed safe zone away from the border, after talks with US Vice President Mike Pence in Ankara.

Erdogan also provided some details from his talks with the Americans, adding that Ankara agreed to the 120 hour time deadline after its initial demand of "one night" for the withdrawal.

"If the promises given to our country are not kept, as we did in the past we will not wait and restart the operation as soon as the time we have given ends," he said. 

The Turkish leader said he also informed US President Donald Trump of Ankara's position during a phone call late on Friday.

On Sunday, a senior Kurdish militia leader said his forces will withdraw from the Syria-Turkey border area in accordance with a US-brokered deal, once Turkey allows the evacuation of its remaining fighters.

Redur Khalil, a senior Syrian Democratic Forces official, said the plan for evacuation from the border town of Ras al-Ayn is set for the following day, if there are no delays.

He says only after that will his force pull back from a 120-kilometre (75-mile) area between the towns of Ras al-Ayn and Tal-Aybad. It will withdraw and move back from the border 30 kilometres (19 miles).

This is the first time the Kurdish-led force has publicly acknowledged it will withdraw from the border, saying it has coordinated it with the Americans. The agreement has not specified the area of its pullback.

Syrian Kurdish forces said on Saturday that Turkey was failing to abide by terms of the US-brokered ceasefire, refusing to lift a siege it imposed on a key border town in northeastern Syria more than a day after the truce went into effect.

Meanwhile, Erdogan is due to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Black Sea resort of Sochi next Tuesday, which overlaps with the end of the 120 hour deadline.

Ankara considers Syrian Kurdish YPG militants to be an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - a group that has fought a bloody insurgency inside Turkey for 35 years.

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