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Can observation posts calm Turkish-Kurdish tensions on Syria border?

Observation posts will soon dot the Syrian-Turkish border to calm the tension between the US-allied People's Protection Units and Turkish forces.
Syrian schoolchildren walk as U.S. troops patrol near Turkish border in Hasakah, Syria November 4, 2018. REUTERS/Rodi Said - RC11C2532E70

The US-led coalition will press ahead with the establishment of observation posts to deconflict Turkish and Kurdish forces along the Syrian-Turkish border despite Turkish objections, according to sources with intimate knowledge of coalition planning.

Speaking to Al-Monitor on the condition they not be identified, the sources recalled that Turkey had justified its military buildup along the Syrian border facing territory controlled by Syrian Kurdish forces and its plans to invade on the grounds that the militants known as the People’s Protection Units (YPG) were firing at Turkey “all the time.” The sources asserted that with coalition forces deployed in the border area, they would be in a position to ascertain where the Turks are being shot at and prevent the YPG from doing so. The reality, however, in the words of one of the sources, is that the “YPG is not firing across the border.”

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