Turkey attacked targets inside Syria, and U.S. officials called for de-escalation

Turkey attacked targets inside Syria-

A U.S. official in Syria called for "immediate de-escalation of the situation" on Friday (Nov. 25). This was preceded by days of air and shelling along the Syrian-Turkish border. The official said the actions destabilized the region and undermined the fight against the Islamic State (IS).

Turkey launched a wave of airstrikes this week against Kurdish rebels suspected of hiding in neighboring Syria and Iraq in retaliation for a deadly bomb attack in Islamabad on November 13. Ankara accused Kurdish groups of orchestrating the bomb attack.

The Kurdish groups denied involvement in the bombings and said Turkish airstrikes had killed civilians and threatened the fight against the Islamic State.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based anti-war watch, said 67 civilians, militants and military personnel had died in Turkish attacks in northern Syria since the airstrikes began.

Nikolas Granger, the U.S. High Representative for Northern Syria, said Washington "strongly opposes military action that further destabilizes the lives of Syrian communities and families, and we want immediate de-escalation."
Granger,
who is now inside Syria, said the developments were "unacceptable and dangerous, and we are deeply concerned." He added that the airstrikes also put U.S. military personnel on the ground at risk.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened a new invasion into northern Syria to fight Kurdish groups. He said Friday that Turkey would continue its "fight against terrorism in all its forms and manifestations inside and outside our country."

Turkey and the United States both consider the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) a terrorist organization because it has waged decades-long insurgency and orchestrated attacks inside Turkey.

But the two countries are at odds over the status of the People's Protection Units (YPG), the main Kurdish militia in Syria. The Syrian Kurdish group has been a key ally in the U.S. campaign against ISIS.

Turkey has carried out three major operations into northern Syria since 2016, and Turkish forces still control parts of Syria.

Kurdish officials in Syria have been warning that any new Turkish invasion would disrupt the fight against ISIS. ISIS still has sleeper cells and has carried out deadly attacks in recent months against Syrian Kurdish-led opposition forces and Syrian government forces.

Siamand Ali, a spokesman for the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), told The Associated Press: "We take these threats seriously and are prepared to respond to any ground attack." ”