Kurdish militia

Top advisers for Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan and US President Joe Biden spoke on the phone on Tuesday, marking the first official contact between the two countries since Biden took office.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday lauded the US relationship with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan as the leaders started a meeting to overcome mounting differences between the two NATO allies ranging from Syria policy to Turkey's purchase of a Russian missile defense system.

Turkey said on Monday it had deported two captives from Islamic State - a German and an American - beginning a program to repatriate detainees that has caused friction with its NATO allies since it launched an offensive in northern Syria.

Authorities in Kurdish-controlled areas in Syria have accused Turkey of using unconventional weapons such as white phosphorus and napalm during its offensive in the northern areas of the country, AFP reported.

The agency says it has failed to independently verify these allegations against Ankara forces or Syrian fighters who support them.

Turkey agreed to pause its offensive in Syria for five days to let Kurdish forces withdraw from a "safe zone" Ankara had sought to capture, in a deal hailed by the Trump administration and cast by Turkey as a complete victory.

A jihadist terrorist of Cypriot origins was reportedly taken out of Kurdish custody just as Turkey was initiating its ground offensive in Syria, with the US president saying "dangerous ISIS fighters" are in secure locations.

EU governments threatened sanctions against Turkey on Friday over its offensive in Syria, angrily rejecting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's warning that he would "open the gates" and send 3.6 million refugees to Europe if they did not back him.

President Donald Trump agreed in a National Security Council meeting this week to keep U.S. troops in Syria a little longer to defeat Islamic State but wants them out relatively soon, a senior administration official said on Wednesday, Reuters reports.

Turkey on Monday insisted pro-Ankara forces did not plan to remain in Afrin as occupiers after they ousted Kurdish militia from the northern Syrian city, AFP reports.

Syrian rebels backed by the Turkish army on Sunday drove the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) out of their former stronghold of Afrin near the Turkish frontier.

Turkey's foreign minister assailed the United States on Monday, claiming that American forces in Syria are intentionally stalling the fight against Islamic State militants as an excuse not to cut ties with Syrian Kurdish militiamen as Ankara has demanded.