Syria’s Foreign Ministry, which has the backing of Russia and as of last week, China, condemned Turkey’s military incursion against an Islamic State-held Syrian town near its border, aided by aircraft from a U.S.-led coalition, as a breach of its sovereignty, Syrian state television reported. It added that any counter terrorism operations inside its borders had to be conducted in coordination with Damascus and accused Ankara of launching the incursion to replace Islamic State with “other terrorist groups” a reference to rebels.

There has already been speculation that Turkey’s latest incursion into Syrian territory has little to do with the stated purpose of cleansing ISIS forces close to its border following this weekend’s Gaziantep suicide bombing which was promptly blamed on ISIS, and is merely the latest escalation in Erdogan’s ongoing conflict with militant Kurdish forces located in the region.