NORTHERN SYRIA (NBC) – Turkey’s military Thursday expanded its air and ground attacks on U.S. allies in Syria.
Artillery and air strikes pounded towns in the Kurdish region of northern Syria.
There are unconfirmed reports of close to 20 military and civilian deaths.
Turkey is attacking Kurdish forces who helped the U.S. defeat ISIS while U.S. troops in the region watch from the sidelines.
Into the night in northern Syria, the offensive continued. If anything, it gets more intense in the darkest hours as Turkey uses aircraft, artillery, ground forces to push into northern Syria.
This offensive has one objective: to drive out Kurdish militias. These are the Kurdish militias that have been working with U.S. troops in Syria for the past four years to fight against ISIS. Turkey sees them as a threat to national security. Turkey sees them as terrorists.
These Kurds have set up a mini-state here in northern Syria and it is that small state that is under attack right now and U.S. troops are watching all of this from the sidelines. They are back on their bases. They’ve been pulled away from the front lines so their orders are effectively to stay out of this which puts them in a very difficult position because, of course, Turkey is a NATO ally. It’s a U.S. ally.
But the Kurds have been personally working with the American troops in this country. So there are personal bonds as American commanders here watch the people that they have been fighting shoulder to shoulder with against ISIS for four years face Turkey, an enemy, that these Kurdish forces cannot match.
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