According to Pentagon statistics, Wednesday’s blast was the deadliest attack for US anti-ISIS forces in Syria since they deployed in 2014. Turkey has repeatedly threatened to attack Washington’s Syrian Kurdish allies, who Ankara views as “terrorists” on its southern flank. But senior Syrian Kurdish political leader Aldar Khalil said any Turkish deployment in Kurdish-held areas was “unacceptable”. He said the Kurds would accept the deployment of UN forces along a separation line between Kurdish fighters and Turkish troops. Critics have accused Turkish troops and their proxies of military occupation and abuses in Syrian sovereign territory.

Source: Egypt Independent January 17, 2019 01:52 UTC