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U.S. Troops to Set Up Observation Posts in Northern Syria
(Military.com) Richard Sisk - Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has ordered U.S. troops to set up observation posts in northern Syria with a dual purpose - to warn Turkey of threats and to stop the Turkish military from attacking U.S.-backed opposition forces. "We are putting observation posts in several locations up along the northern Syrian border because we want to be the people who call the Turks and warn them if we see something coming out of an area that we're operating in," Mattis said last week, referring to the U.S. troops working with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) to eliminate the last remnants of the Islamic State in Syria. He also said the observation posts would give a measure of protection to the SDF, which the Turkish military has occasionally shelled. "What this is designed to do is make sure that the people we have fighting down in the MERV [Middle Euphrates River Valley] are not drawn off that fight and that we can crush what's left of the geographic caliphate."