Defense Policy

Pentagon: Operations against ISIS in eastern Syria 'paused'

Army Times: WASHINGTON — U.S.-backed ground operations against Islamic State remnants in eastern Syria have been put on hold because Kurds who had spearheaded combat against the extremists have shifted to a separate fight with Turkish forces, U.S. officials said Monday.

The public acknowledgement of what Col. Rob Manning, a Pentagon spokesman, called an “operational pause” is the most explicit sign yet that Turkey’s intervention in the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin is hindering the U.S. effort to finish off ISIS in Syria.

For weeks, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and other U.S. officials have called Turkey’s operation a “distraction” from the anti-ISIS campaign. Mattis also has said the U.S. understands that Turkey has an active Kurdish insurgency inside its own borders and that it views Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units, or YPG, to be a terrorist organization. The U.S. says the YPG is separate from the Kurdish fighters inside the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, but Turkey disagrees.

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