The head of the Pentagon cautioned Turkey on Tuesday against undertaking a unilateral military operation in northern Syria to target a US-allied Kurdish militia as American defense officials visited Ankara in what was seen as an eleventh-hour effort by Washington to block a Turkish attack.
Tensions between the NATO allies over the border region that Turkey considers part of its national security sphere have come to a head as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warns he is running out of patience with the long-running negotiations. The two sides are discussing the size and scope of a buffer zone south of the Turkish border that would expel the Syrian Democratic Forces, led by Kurdish militants that Ankara considers a terrorist organization.
