Caught Between Trump, Turkey and Kurds, Pentagon Struggles to Piece Together Syria Strategy

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WASHINGTON -- For nine months, the Pentagon played down the presence of its 1,000 troops in Syria, hoping that President Donald Trump would not focus on the extent to which the U.S. military was continuing to fight the Islamic State despite his order in December to pull out.On Sunday, the president appeared

WASHINGTON — For nine months, the Pentagon played down the presence of its 1,000 troops in Syria, hoping that President Donald Trump would not focus on the extent to which the U.S. military was continuing to fight the Islamic State despite his order in December to pull out.

Pentagon officials were insisting Monday that the United States remained firmly opposed to a Turkish incursion. “The Department of Defense made clear to Turkey — as did the president — that we do not endorse a Turkish operation in northern Syria,” Jonathan Hoffman, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement. He warned that “unilateral action creates risk for Turkey,” which would be responsible for thousands of Islamic State fighters being held by the Kurds.

The military would then assesses conditions on the ground and reduce the number of forces periodically, if conditions allowed, until the force levels reached the 400 troops that Trump approved in February. By late March, the American withdrawal settled around 1,000 troops — what the military calls an “economy of force” mission. The troops effectively operated between two allies: Turkey and the Kurds. Turkey is a decadeslong NATO partner. The Syrian Kurds are much more recent allies, but have played a pivotal role as the major ground force against the Islamic State.After Erdogan threatened in early August to carry out a cross-border operation to attack the Syrian Kurds, U.S.

 

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