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U.S. Launches Last-Ditch Effort to Stop Turkish Invasion of Northeast Syria
(Washington Post) Karen DeYoung - The U.S. has launched a last-ditch effort to head off a Turkish invasion of northeast Syria. Tens of thousands of Turkish troops are massed near the border. Kurdish-led victories against the Islamic State have left them in control of much of the border area. Turkey considers this a terrorist threat to its own security. The U.S. has proposed a joint U.S.-Turkish military operation to secure a strip south of the Syria-Turkey border that would be nine miles deep and 87 miles long and from which Kurdish fighters would be withdrawn. The U.S. and Turkish militaries would destroy Kurdish fortifications and then jointly patrol the area. Turkey has already rejected those parameters, insisting on a "safe zone" at least 20 miles deep and expressing a preference to control it alone. If Turkey refuses the U.S. proposal and launches an invasion, the administration has made clear that it cannot, under existing congressional authorities, intervene to protect the Kurdish fighters. The Kurds have warned that a fight with Turkey may leave them unable to guard the prisons in eastern Syria holding 10,000 Islamic State inmates.