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US Warns That Turkey's Syria Offensive Giving IS 'Time and Space'

Jeff Seldin

   U.S. defense intelligence officials are offering a sobering assessment
   of the impact Turkey's incursion into northeastern Syria -- and
   corresponding moves by the U.S. and other powers -- will have on
   efforts to destroy the Islamic State terror group.

   The consequences of the Turkish offensive "will provide the group with
   time and space to expand its ability to conduct transnational attacks
   targeting the West," the Defense Intelligence Agency told the Defense
   Department's inspector general.

   Turkey launched its air and ground offensive into Syria last month,
   after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered about 50 U.S. special
   operation troops to pull back from several outposts, saying it intended
   to clear the border region of terrorists.

   But rather than target Islamic State, the Turkish operation targeted
   Kurdish militias, which Ankara views as terror groups, but which also
   had been fighting as part of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces
   [SDF] to defeat IS cells and networks in the area.

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