Live Update
From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, December 17, 2024
Report: US wary of potential Turkish invasion of Kurdish territory in Syria
US officials are concerned Turkey may be planning to invade Syrian territory held by Kurdish forces, citing a troop buildup near the border, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Turkey backs Islamist Sunnis that have led the rebel forces that ousted Bashar al-Assad, but views Kurdish groups and the Syrian Democratic Forces, which control northeast Syria, as an extension of the banned PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party) that has fought a decades-long insurgency on Turkish soil.
“If Turkey proceeds with its invasion, the consequences will be catastrophic,” one Kurdish official tells The Journal.