Turkey Inches Closer to Invasion as ISIS Terrorist Threat Increases

Turkish soldiers stand guard atop an outpost as smoke billows from burning tyres during a demonstration against Turkey's perceived inaction over the latest Syrian regime attacks, in the village of Balyun in the rebel-held southern countryside of Syria's northwestern province of Idlib on July 22, 2021. OMAR HAJ KADOUR/AFP via Getty Images

U.S. officials expressed concerns this week that a possible Turkish invasion of Syria could harm the United States’ ability to defeat ISIS and trigger the release of thousands of terrorists from jails.

“The Department of Defense is deeply concerned by escalating actions in northern Syria, Iraq, and Turkey,” said Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder in a statement. “This escalation threatens the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS’s years-long progress to degrade and defeat ISIS.”

Ryder then alleged that “recent air strikes in Syria directly threatened the safety of U.S. personnel who are working in Syria with local partners to defeat ISIS and maintain custody of more than ten thousand ISIS detainees.”

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said this week that his country might carry out a ground offensive in Syria against Kurdish military groups following border clashes. His comments came as Turkish artillery kept up bombardment of Kurdish bases and other targets near the Syrian towns of Tal Rifaat and Kobani, Reuters reported.

“We have been bearing down on terrorists for a few days with our planes, cannons and guns,” Erdogan said in a speech in northeastern Turkey. “God willing, we will root out all of them as soon as possible, together with our tanks, our soldiers.”

He said previously that operations would not be limited to an air campaign and may involve ground forces. Turkey has mounted several major military operations against the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia and ISIS militants in northern Syria in recent years.

But Ryder said the United States has misgivings about “uncoordinated military actions” that threaten “Iraq’s sovereignty,” while calling for the “immediate de-escalation” of the conflict. Currently, the United States has about 900 troops in Syria.

“We are also concerned by reports of the deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure. As we call for de-escalation, we recognize Turkey’s legitimate security concerns. We will continue to discuss with Turkey and our local partners maintaining ceasefire arrangements,” Ryder added.

Ryder said that a possible invasion could threaten the coalition to “degrade and defeat” ISIS, a Sunni Islamist terrorist organization that took over swaths of Syria and Iraq in the early 2010s. The group was mostly dismantled under the Trump administration, which successfully ordered the killing of former leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019.

It comes as the commander of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) told Axios that America has a “moral duty” following Erdogan’s statements about a ground offensive.

Turkish military vehicles enter Syria to take part in a joint patrol with Russian troops, in the countryside of the town of Derbassiye in Syria's northeastern Hasakeh province, on the border with Turkey, on July 14, 2021. Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images

“I believe once they [Turkey] see there is no strong opposition from the main players they will go ahead,” Mazloum said Wednesday. “We believe the reactions are not enough yet to stop the Turks from launching this operation.”

Escalation

On Monday, Turkey said the YPG killed two people in mortar attacks from northern Syria, following Turkish air operations against the militia at the weekend and a deadly bomb attack in Istanbul a week earlier.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar vowed to keep up operations against the militants, renewing calls for NATO ally Washington to stop backing the Syrian Kurdish forces that Ankara calls a wing of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a Marxist group.

“We tell all our partners, notably the United States, at every level, that the YPG equals the PKK and persist with our demand that they halt every kind of support for terrorists,” Akar told a parliamentary commission in a speech.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees troops in Syria, confirmed to Voice of America that Turkey carried out an airstrike on Tuesday.

“Turkey does continue to suffer a legitimate terrorist threat, particularly to their south,” John Kirby, the National Security Council’s spokesman, told reporters earlier this week. “They certainly have every right to defend themselves and their citizens.”

A mural bears the logo of the ISIS terrorist group. Ahmad Al-Rubaye/AFP via Getty Images

But Kirby said that the Pentagon believes Erdogan’s proposal will do more harm than good in the long term.

“It might force a reaction by some of our SDF partners that would limit, constrain their ability to continue to fight against ISIS …  it’s still viable as a threat,” he said.

More than 40,000 people have been killed in fighting between the left-wing PKK and the Turkish state which began in 1984. Turkey, the United States, and the European Union designate the PKK as a terrorist group.

Turkey, a longstanding member of NATO, has long viewed the PKK and YPG as one entity, whereas the United States and its other allies do not.

Reuters contributed to this report.