A large Sunni Arab fighting force backed by US special operations troops and fighter jets have launched an operation to recapture a key ISIS-held town in northern Syria 20 miles from the border with Turkey, a senior defense official told Fox News on Wednesday.
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Washington informed Ankara of the Manbij operation, but it was beyond the range of Turkish artillery and Turkey would not back a campaign in which Syrian Kurdish fighters played a role, another Turkish military source said on Wednesday.
That is seen as important to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member Turkey, which has opposed any further expansion of Syrian Kurdish sway at the frontier.
Last week, photos published by AFP of US special operations forces in Syria wearing patches of the YPG surfaced on the Internet, drawing outrage from Turkish officials.
“What we have been told is that the YPG will predominantly act as a logistical force here and the main force will be Arabs”, Erdoğan said.
The SDF includes the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and allied Arab groups.
Capturing Manbij would sever the vital supply route, cut off militant fighters and further squeeze the Islamic State in Raqqa, Garver said.
The YPG has been a key ally for the USA military on the ground in Syria in the fight against ISIS.
In a separate incident, another US service member was injured near Erbil in northern Iraq over the weekend.
Basma Kodmani, a member of the Saudi-backed High Negotiations Committee, the main opposition group at United Nations -mediated peace talks, told reporters that the HNC wanted clarity on the objectives of the SDF.
The Democratic Forces of Syria (DFS) started the offensive overnight near the IS-held city of Minbij, less than 20 kilometers from the Turkish border, and took control of over 20 villages and farms, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
“We know that there is external plotting, from Manbij city … against the homelands of Europe, Turkey – all good friends and allies of ours – and the United States as well”, Carter said.
A small number of American special forces troops are supporting the offensive on the ground, acting as advisors rather than engaging in direct combat, officials told Reuters. “I ask all the good people to not treat us like they (the militants) treated us”.
The operation precedes an eventual push by USA -backed Syrian forces toward the city of Raqqa, the Islamic State’s de facto capital in Syria and the prime objective in Syria for US military planners. Those efforts have stalled since the Islamic State repelled a rebel offensive in March aimed at recapturing areas of the province that border Turkey.
A five-year-long, multi-sided civil war in Syria, in which global powers back enemy sides, has made it impossible to coordinate a single campaign against Islamic State there.
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“The destruction of ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq further limits the group’s ability to project terror and conduct operations”, said the statement, using an alternate acronym for the IS jihadists.
