Deputy PM Says US Is 'Risking Confrontation' With Turkey US-Turkey tensions mounting surrounding the Turkish invasion of the Syrian Kurdish Afrin District look to be getting much worse, with Turkey’s deputy premier Bekir Bozdag warning that the US is the one risking confrontation by supporting the Kurds. Deputy PM Bekir Bozdag and President Erdogan
Bozdag warned the US needs to “review its soldiers and elements giving support to terrorists on the ground,” and that US forces who continue to support the Kurdish YPG, which Turkey considers terrorists “will become a target in this battle.”
The US isn’t believed to have any serious forces inside Afrin District, which Turkey is presently invading. Turkey’s President Erdogan, however, says they will attack Manbij next, and there are a substantial number of US troops deployed there.
The US had long bet that Turkey wouldn’t invade Manbij and risk fighting a fellow NATO member, but Turkish officials are now giving the indication that they’re trying to call America’s bluff on such a confrontation, and betting the US will back off their alliance with the Kurds rather than risk a fight with Turkey, who hosts a key US airbase.