Defense Secretary Jim Mattis expressed concern Monday over Turkey’s attack on Kurdish forces the U.S. has armed to fight the Islamic State.
Asked by reporters traveling with him to Asia whether he was worried about the situation in northern Syria, which pits NATO ally Turkey against U.S. ally the Kurdish YPG militia, Mattis replied, “We are very — yes.”
“Our top levels are engaged,” Mattis told reporters on his plane en route to Hawaii. “Both Turkey and the American side. And we’re working through it.”
The U.S. armed some YPG fighters who were part of the Syrian Democratic Forces that were assembled to defeat ISIS in Syria.
Mattis said Turkey notified the U.S. of its intent to move against the YPG, which Ankara considers a terrorist group, in an operation designed to establish a 20-mile buffer zone along Turkey’s southern border with Syria.
The advance word came in a telephone call from top Turkish military leaders to high levels of the American military.
“They warned us before they launched the aircraft they were going to do it, in consultation with us,” Mattis said. “And we are working now on the way ahead through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, obviously on the mil-to-mil side, and we’ll work this out.”
Mattis declined to say if the U.S. raised any objection to the Turkish offensive, and he was careful not to criticize Turkey publicly.
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Jim Mattis: US "very alert" to tensions between Turks and Kurds in Syria https://t.co/FQ9B4QAQJz pic.twitter.com/5fFAyTYQpg
— Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) January 22, 2018
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