With Turkey’s entry into Syria, the conflict there has entered a new phase – one that may vex the US, whose partners in the anti-ISIS coalition seem more interested in fighting one another. Turkey is not, after all, interested only in clearing ISIS from its borders; it is also focused on taking down the Kurds.
KARKAMIŞ, TURKEY – Soon after Turkey officially entered the fray in Syria last month, some 350 Turkish troops marched alongside more than 1,000 US-equipped Syrian rebel forces to clear the Islamic State (ISIS) out of the Syrian city of Jarablus, north of Aleppo. The battle was over before it began: the ISIS fighters fled before Turkish tanks rolled in. But the conflict, far from being over, is about to become even more complicated.
KARKAMIŞ, TURKEY – Soon after Turkey officially entered the fray in Syria last month, some 350 Turkish troops marched alongside more than 1,000 US-equipped Syrian rebel forces to clear the Islamic State (ISIS) out of the Syrian city of Jarablus, north of Aleppo. The battle was over before it began: the ISIS fighters fled before Turkish tanks rolled in. But the conflict, far from being over, is about to become even more complicated.