This week the Pentagon issued a warning to Turkey, that the country’s airstrikes against Kurdish forces in North-eastern Syria were endangering U.S. troops and might open the door for the resurgence of the Islamic State if Kurdish forces are weakened.
Press secretary Brigadier General Pat Ryder said the Defence Department “is deeply concerned” [by escalating attacks in Syria, Iraq and Turkey] and that “Recent airstrikes in Syria directly threatened the safety of US personnel who are working with local partners to defeat ISIS and maintain custody of more than ten thousand ISIS detainees.”
Kurdish troops supported by U.S. airpower were primarily responsible for the destruction of the Islamic State between 2014 and 2017.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government named the airstrikes ‘Operation Claw-Sword’ and claimed they are in retaliation for a bombing that claimed six lives and wounded more than 80 in a popular tourist neighbourhood in Istanbul on Nov. 13.