Turkey bombs US ally in Syria

U.S. military officials and their Syrian partners visited the scene of pre-dawn Turkish airstrikes that killed 18 members of the allegedly PKK-linked Kurdish YPG forces overnight.

The Telegraph sums up the long-simmering tensions: "The US is in the awkward political position of considering the PKK a terrorist group while strongly supporting the YPG, even though there appears to be crossover between the two."

According to Ankara: "A Turkish military statement said the pre-dawn strikes hit targets on the Sinjar Mountain in northern Iraq and also in a mountainous region in Syria," AP reports. "It said the operations were conducted to prevent infiltration of Kurdish rebels, weapons, ammunition and explosives from those areas into Turkey. A Turkish security official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with Turkish government protocol, said the airstrikes are believed to have killed around 200 PKK militants, including some senior commanders. The claim could not be independently confirmed."