U.S. forces trained the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a rebranded version of the People's Protection Units (YPG) terror group, for a possible operation by Turkish forces in northeastern Syria, Foreign Policy magazine reported Tuesday.
Citing a U.S. Army officer who worked with the group, the magazine said the SDF was taught sophisticated battlefield tactics, including how to build a network of tunnels beneath key towns in northeast Syria as a contingency against a Turkish military campaign.
The officer told Foreign Policy that the group started to work on tunnels after Turkey seized Afrin, Syria in 2018.
The officer also said U.S. troops conducted several rehearsals with the SDF on how to coordinate in case of a Turkish operation as well as training to build a "defense in depth," a military strategy that seeks to cause a delay to an attacking force.
A former U.S. Army officer who also worked with the SDF confirmed the "group built tunnels as a contingency" against Turkey, said the report.
It added that the tunnels and other defenses were likely set up as part of preparations for an eventual U.S. withdrawal.
Turkey launched Operation Peace Spring, the third in a series of cross-border anti-terror operations in northern Syria targeting terrorists affiliated with Daesh and the PKK's Syrian offshoot the People's Protection Units (YPG), on Oct. 9 at 4 p.m.
The operation, conducted in line with the country's right to self-defense borne out of international law and U.N. Security Council resolutions, aims to establish a terror-free safe zone for Syrians return in the area east of the Euphrates River controlled by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is dominated by YPG terrorists.
The PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the European Union — has waged a terror campaign against Turkey for more than 30 years, resulting in the deaths of nearly 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
Turkey has long decried the threat from terrorists east of the Euphrates in northern Syria, pledging military action to prevent the formation of a "terrorist corridor" there.
Since 2016, Turkey's Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations in northwestern Syria have liberated the region from YPG/PKK and Daesh terrorists, making it possible for nearly 400,000 Syrians who fled the violence to return home.