“We have seen as the situation in Afrin has taken hold that some of those SDF forces … have started to leave their work with coalition partners, the fight against ISIS, and head over to Afrin to handle those types of issues,” Nauert said on Thursday. “That takes the eye off the ball on ISIS. It's a concern of ours.”
Nauert underscored that the SDF has been a tremendous and valuable fighting force in the fight against Daesh.
On January 20, the Turkish Armed Forces launched an operation against Kurdish forces in Afrin, an area in northern Syria controlled by the US-backed YPG, which is considered by Ankara to be an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), designated as a terrorist organization in Turkey and several other countries. Damascus has strongly condemned Ankara's actions, with the Syrian Foreign Ministry calling them a violation of the country's sovereignty.
*Daesh (also known as ISIS/ISIL/IS) is a terrorist group banned in Russia
