A Turkish attack on a joint base of Kurdish forces and the international anti-jihadist coalition in northeastern Syria has put US troops at risk, the US Army Command for the Middle East (CentCom) revealed on Wednesday.
The Turkish army has been carrying out airstrikes against Kurdish fighters in Syria since Sunday.
On Tuesday, a Turkish drone bombed a joint base of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF, dominated by Kurdish fighters) and the US-led international coalition, killing two Kurdish fighters.
Initially, CentCom claimed that its forces “were not in danger” during any of the attacks, specifying that the “nearest bombings occurred at least 12 to 18 miles away from the U.S. presence.
But this Wednesday, CentCom said in an email to the France-Presse news agency (AFP) that it had received “additional information” that US troops and personnel were at risk.
Backed by the international coalition led by the United States, the SDF is leading the fight against the jihadist group Islamic State (IS), which was driven out of captured strongholds in Syria in 2019.
Hundreds of international coalition troops, including US troops, are still deployed in areas under Kurdish control in northern Syria, a country torn apart by the civil war that began in 2011.
Turkey says it is carrying out the raids in response to the deadly attack on 13 this month in Istanbul, which Ankara blames on Syrian-Kurdish fighters from the People’s Protection Units (YPG) and Turkish-Kurdish rebels from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) . ), in which they both denied responsibility.
Turkey describes the YPG as a “terrorist organization”, considering it an extension of the PKK’s Turkish-Kurdish rebels.
The United States has already spoken out against “any military action that destabilizes the situation in Syria,” CentCom spokesman Joe Buccino said.
Source: DN
