As a spokesman for the US Department of Defense Jonathan Hoffman told reporters, Esper "strongly urged Turkey to cease operations in northeast Syria."
According to him, this is necessary to increase the chances of “finding the United States, Turkey and our partners a common way to de-escalate the situation before it becomes irreparable,” TASS reports.
On October 9, Ankara announced the start of the ground part of this military operation. According to the Turkish Ministry of Defense on October 11, Turkish forces eliminated “342 terrorists” from the moment the “Source of Peace” operation began in Syria.