Turkey on the verge of going to war with Syrian Kurds

Turkey has bombed northern Iraq every once in a while for decades.
This is different.

Turkish warplanes carried out a series of coordinated attacks against US-allied Kurdish forces in both northern Iraq and northeastern Syria today, killing more than 70 people, including at least 18 troops loyal to the Kurdish YPG, and pounding the area around the Iraqi city of Sinjar.
Attacks within Syrian territory targeted the city of Derik, in Hassakeh Province, targeting Kurdish military posts. The US arms and heavily backs the YPG, something Turkey has long complained about. The strikes, reflect long-standing Turkish threats to move against the Syrian Kurds.
But it’s not just Syria. The strikes around Iraq’s Sinjar were after PKK fighters in the area, with Turkey’s President Erdogan insisting that he will never allow Sinjar to become a PKK base of operation. The PKK established a presence in Sinjar during the expulsion of ISIS, and have been largely welcomed by the local Yazidi population.

The State Department condemned the attacks, as did the Syrian and Iraqi governments.
The Syrian Kurds have asked the coalition to impose a no-fly zone to protect them from Turkey. They have also suspended their offensive against ISIS in Raqqa in order to defend themselves from Turkey.
There are reports of clashes on the Syria-Turkey border.
Meanwhile, Turkey has threatened to invade Iraq in order to expel the PKK from Sinjar.

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As long as the US and Europe keep certain Kurdish groups on the terrorist list we could be in for another Armenia.

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@LaFeminista
Our allies, the Kurds, are opposed by every capital in the region (Ankara, Baghdad, Tehran, Damascus).
Eventually this is going to blow up, and our troops are in middle of it.

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Cant Stop the Macedonian Signal's picture

@gjohnsit Then why do they condemn the attacks?

Probably because it's asinine to attack people who are attacking IS.

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"More for Gore or the son of a drug lord--None of the above, fuck it, cut the cord."
--Zack de la Rocha

"I tell you I'll have nothing to do with the place...The roof of that hall is made of bones."
-- Fiver

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Not Henry Kissinger's picture

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The current working assumption appears to be that our Shroedinger's Cat system is still alive. But what if we all suspect it's not, and the real problem is we just can't bring ourselves to open the box?