'Sometimes NATO Ally & ISIL Airforce' - Turkish jets strike U.S.-backed Kurdish militia in Syria.

'Sometimes NATO Ally' - Turkish jets strike U.S.-backed Kurdish militia in Syria. (Yahoo).

ISTANBUL/BEIRUT (Reuters) - Turkish jets pounded a U.S.-backed group of Kurdish-led militia fighters in northern Syria with more than 20 air strikes overnight, highlighting the conflicting agendas of the two NATO allies in an increasingly complex battlefield.

The jets targeted positions of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in three villages northeast of the city of Aleppo which the SDF had captured from Islamic State, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said late on Wednesday.

The Turkish military confirmed its warplanes had carried out 26 air strikes on areas recently taken by the Kurdish YPG militia, the strongest force in the SDF, and that it had killed between 160 and 200 fighters.

The British-based Observatory monitoring group reported a much lower toll of 11 dead and dozens wounded. Officials of the Kurdish-led administration that controls much of northeastern Syria said dozens had been killed.

The air strikes, the heaviest against the YPG since Turkey launched a military incursion into Syria two months ago, came hours after President Tayyip Erdogan warned that Turkey could act alone in rooting out its enemies abroad.

They also came ahead of an expected visit by U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter to Ankara on Friday.

"From now on we will not wait for problems to come knocking on our door, we will not wait until the blade is against our bone and skin, we will not wait for terrorist organizations to come and attack us," Erdogan said in a speech on Wednesday. Hmmmm.....Erdogan Obama's BFF. Read the full story here.

Related:

Jaysh al-Thuwar (The Army of Revolutionaries) Media Center has announced that Turkey and the gangs attacked simultaneously and the revolutionary forces retaliated strongly against the attacks.
In their statement, Jaysh al-Thuwar said that following the bombing by Turkish aircraft, Turkey’s gangs attacked El Hisiyê and the Shehba Dam to invade.

The statement says the gangs in “Euphrates Shield” attacked from the north of the dam and ISIS gangs attacked from the Al-Wehshiyê and Tal Midîq side simultaneously, and that the “Euphrates Shield” gangs attempted to invade Al-Hesiyê from the Tal Malid village side.


Jaysh al-Thuwar said, “Our forces are retaliating strongly against the invading Turkish army. As a result of attacks by gangs allied with Turkey and ISIS gangs, there are intense clashes around the Shehba Dam and Al-Hesiye.”