(MENAFN) The United States military stated that recent Turkish airstrikes in Syria "threatened the safety" of American troops still stationed there and warned that further escalation could jeopardize efforts to crush the remaining members of the terrorist organization known as the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS).
The Pentagon expressed its "deeply concerned" about the escalating hostilities in Syria, Iraq, and Turkey in a statement released on Wednesday. It also noted that Ankara's strikes on Kurdish militia factions earlier this week ran the risk of harming United States forces stationed nearby.
Patrick Ryder, the Pentagon's spokesman claimed, “recent air strikes in Syria directly threatened the safety of US personnel who are working in Syria with local partners to defeat ISIS and maintain custody of more than ten thousand ISIS detainees.” Noting that “This escalation threatens the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS’s years-long progress.”
Ankara faces a "legitimate terrorist threat" from some Kurdish groups, and has "every right" to defend itself, according to National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, who spoke out in favor of Turkey's ongoing "Claw-Sword" operation in Syria just one day earlier. Nevertheless, Kirby suggested that the mission could "force a reaction" from United States-backed Kurdish fighters, which might "constrain their ability to continue the fight against ISIS," so the endorsement was hesitant.
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