Furor over pulling troops from northeast Syria began with troubling Trump phone call and White House statement
By Karen DeYoung and Kareem Fahim
Oct. 8, 2019 at 8:02 p.m. EDT
https://web.archive.org/web/20191009044900/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/turkey-rejectstrumps-threats-amid-conflicting-us-signals-over-syria-offensive/2019/10/08/a86d3096-e93a-11e9-a329-7378fbfa1b63_story.html
Turkey’s Defense Ministry wrote Tuesday on Twitter that its preparations for the operation were complete.
U.S. military officials said American forces in Syria, including about 50 Special Operations troops who have now been repositioned outside the safe zone, were waiting to see the extent of Turkey’s offensive to assess how the overall U.S. mission there would be affected.
Outside experts have cautioned that a large-scale Turkish operation, if it precipitated a security breakdown at prisons holding Islamic State militants, could prompt a larger U.S. withdrawal from Syria. The American presence, which includes about 1,000 troops in northeast Syria, is a lean force dispersed across a number of bases.
Officials said they were uncertain whether Turkish forces would conduct a symbolic feint inside the border — which they said could enable the U.S. troops to return to reactivate the safe zone — or would force their way deeper into Syria.
Early Wednesday morning, the Islamic State sought to take advantage of the focus on the border to the north by staging an attack shortly before 2 a.m. in the group’s former capital, Raqqa, according to a statement from the SDF. Three suicide bombers attacked SDF military positions in the city and a gun battle erupted with an unknown number of militants nearby, the statement said.
As allies and regional actors try to unscramble the president’s conflicting statements, Erdogan’s government has remained on message, insisting that the invasion is a certainty and that its target, the SDF, is an imminent threat to Turkey’s national security.
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Sabah, a Turkish newspaper that is close to Erdogan’s government, published a report Tuesday describing how the battle might unfold. It said Turkish armed forces would wait for the full withdrawal of U.S. troops before commencing any operation. Warplanes and howitzers would pound enemy positions, and then Turkish troops would enter Syria from several points along the border, east of the Euphrates River.
The military would advance as far as 18 miles into Syrian territory, the report said, without naming its source. After the operation was completed, Turkey would “continue its humanitarian work to bring back locals in the area.”
> The Turkish military, together with the Free Syrian Army, will cross the Syrian border "shortly", President Tayyip Erdogan's communications director said early on Wednesday, as Ankara starts a military incursion in the region. -Reuters
http://news.trust.org/item/20191008235107-oqbxj/
Foreign Policy is reporting "U.S. and Kurdish officials expect Turkey to launch a military operation within 24 hours as Trump tries to backpedal."
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/10/08/turkey-readies-major-attack-northeast-syria-reversal-damage-control-kurds/
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POTUS making so many contradictory statements, in a row, so quickly - they aren't used to that kek