Reports: US Troops Deploy along Syria-Turkish Border
Local Editor
US armored vehicles are deploying in areas in northern Syria along the tense border with Turkey, a few days after a Turkish airstrike that killed 20 US-backed Kurdish fighters, a Syrian war monitor and Kurdish activists said Friday.
Footage posted by Syrian activists online showed a convoy of US armored vehicles driving on a rural road in the village of Darbasiyah, a few hundred meters from the Turkish border.
Clashes in the area were reported between Turkish and Kurdish forces Wednesday a day after the Turkish airstrike which also destroyed a Kurdish command headquarters.
The Turkish airstrikes, which also wounded 18 members of the US-backed People's Protection Units, or YPG, in Syria were criticized by both the US and Russia.
The YPG is a close US ally in the fight against Daesh [the Arabic acronym for the Takfiri ‘ISIS/ISIL' group] but is seen by Ankara as a terrorist group because of its ties to Turkey's Kurdish militants.
Further clashes between Turkish and Kurdish forces in Syria could potentially undermine the US-led war on Daesh.
A senior Kurdish official, Ilham Ahmad told The Associated Press that American forces began carrying out patrols along the border Thursday along with reconnaissance flights in the area. She said the deployment was in principle temporary, but may become more permanent.
A Kurdish activist in the area, Mustafa Bali, said the deployment is ongoing, adding that it stretches from the Iraqi border to areas past Darbasiyah in the largely Kurdish part of eastern Syria.
"The US role has now become more like a buffer force between us and the Turks on all front lines," he said. He said US forces will also deploy as a separation force in areas where the Turkish-backed Syrian fighting forces and the Kurdish forces meet.
Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team
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