By Roy Gutman
ISTANBUL—In the latest display of Turkish anger at U.S. policy in
Syria, the state news agency has divulged the locations of 10 U.S.
military bases and outposts in northern Syria where the U.S. is leading
an operation to destroy the so-called Islamic State in its self-styled
capital of Raqqa.
The list published by the Anadolu news agency
points to a U.S. presence from one end to the other of the Kurdish
self-administration region—a distance of more than 200 miles. The
Anadolu news agency even listed the number of U.S. troops in several
locations and in two instances stipulated the presence of French special
forces.
Turkey has openly criticized the Trump administration—and
the Obama administration before it—for relying in the battle against
ISIS on a militia led by Kurds affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers
Party or PKK. A separatist movement now at war with Turkey, the PKK has
been listed by the U.S., EU, and Turkey as a terror organization.
To
avoid the appearance of allying with such a group, the U.S. military
set up the Syrian Democratic Forces, which have a large component of
Arab recruits. But they are led by officers from the People’s Protection
Units (YPG), the Syrian affiliate of the PKK.
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Source: The Daily Beast
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