Updated November 1, 2019 Foreign Policy & War
War Crime / Crime Against Humanity
Betrayal of Kurdish Allies: U.S. Withdrawal Enabling Turkish Military Offensive in Northeast Syria
After a phone call with Erdoğan, Trump announced U.S. forces would step aside from the Turkish-Syrian border, describing the Syrian Kurds as 'no angels' and suggesting the region's conflicts were 'not our problem.' Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring within hours. The SDF — which had lost 11,000 fighters combating ISIS — was forced to divert troops from guarding ISIS prisoner facilities; hundreds of ISIS prisoners escaped.