National Security correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says his country's military has begun a long-planned incursion into northern Syria to take out Kurdish forces branded by Ankara as terrorists, but viewed by much of the West as key partners in the fight against Islamic State
The military operation began Wednesday, days after a surprise White House announcement that U.S. forces would withdraw from the region.
President Donald Trump is continuing to defend his decision, amid widespread criticism, saying the "stupid endless wars for us are ending!"
"Fighting between various groups that has been going on for hundreds of years. USA should never have been in Middle East. Moved our 50 soldiers out. Turkey MUST take over captured ISIS fighters that Europe refused to have returned. The stupid endless wars, for us, are ending!," Trump said Wednesday, in a series of tweets on the matter.
Bipartisan criticism
The U.S. announcement of a troop pullout from northern Syria, paving the way for the Turkish military operation against a Kurdish militia in the area, has been widely criticized by both Democrats and Republicans. Lawmakers have said the U.S. would be abandoning Syrian Kurds who had fought the Islamic State terror group alongside U.S. troops.
"If I hear the president say one more time, 'I made a campaign promise to get out of Syria,' I'm going to throw up," Republican Senator Lindsay Graham told Axios. "He took an oath of office to protect the nation against all enemies, foreign and domestic. There's no bigger enemy to our nation than ISIS. And there's no way we can protect the country from radical Islam without partners like the Kurds."
The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces issued its own call for those involved in the coalition to defeat IS and avoid a humanitarian disaster in northern Syria.
"All indications, field information and military build up on the Turkish side of the border indicate that our border areas will be attacked by Turkey, in cooperation with Syrian opposition tied to Turkey," the SDF said. "This attack will spill the blood of thousands of innocent civilians because our border areas are overcrowded."
'Not abandoning' Kurds
President Trump has insisted he is not abandoning Kurds that fought with U.S. and coalition partners against IS. At the same time, he has also praised Turkey, inviting President Erdogan to visit the White House next month (November 13), while calling Ankara a "big trading partner" and crediting the Turkish government with "helping me to save many lives at Idlib Province."
U.S. military officials confirmed that they have re-positioned about 50 U.S. special force members, who had been operating along the Turkey-Syria border, out of harm's way.
"Unfortunately, Turkey has chosen to act unilaterally," Chief Pentagon Spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman said in a statement, Tuesday.
"As a result, we have moved the U.S. forces in northern Syria out of the path of [the] potential Turkish incursion to ensure their safety," he added. "We have made no changes to our force presence in Syria at this time."