[MilitaryTimes] U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in Syria claim a Turkish air strike targeted a training camp housing a secretive coalition-trained commando force.Turkish forces launched an operation to clear Kurdish militants from northern Syria on Wednesday following the withdrawal of a small number of U.S. special operations forces from the area.
The Syrian Democratic Forces press office on Thursday Tweeted out pictures it claimed were of the bombed out training camp.
The SDF claim the camp housed members of the Yekineyen Anti-terror, or YAT ‐ an anti-ISIS commando force that the SDF says "operates alongside" U.S. forces and the coalition.
Photos posted by the SDF and YPG press offices have often depicted the anti-ISIS counterterror force brandishing American weapons, optics and night vision devices associated with other U.S.-trained commando partner forces across the Middle East.
Turkey has long complained to the U.S. of the YPG’s affiliation to the internationally designated terrorist group known as the Kurdistan Workers’ Party or PKK.
But the SDF says Turkey is now targeting the very forces tasked with taking out ISIS sleeper cells. On Saturday, a YAT unit captured ISIS commander Shafaq al-Hachim, according to the SDF press office.
Destroying the commando unit could further jeopardize anti-ISIS operations and allow the jihadi group to reemerge and mobilize larger forces on the battlefield.
| Turkey doesn’t really object to the presence of ISIS — they had a nice little quid pro quo going after the Erdogan-Assad friendship broke up, until the Kurds and the Coalition messed it up. |