Turkey’s attack on Kurdish militants east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria for the first time escalates its fight against the US-allied group and raises the risk of a confrontation with American forces fighting alongside the rebels.
The shelling of People’s Protection Units (YPG) positions on the Euphrates’ eastern shore on Sunday came just two days after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave his “final warning” to Syrian Kurdish fighters to retreat and accused the United States of dragging its feet in an agreement to remove the group from Turkey’s border.