Top US commander visits SDF leadership in Syria amid Turkish threats

A top US commander on Monday met with Commander-in-Chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Mazlum Abdi to discuss developments in northeast Syria.

Mustafa Bali, the head of the SDF’s press office, confirmed the meeting in a tweet. Bali said General Kenneth McKenzie, a US Marine Corps general, and currently the commander of the United States Central Command (CENTCOM), and Ambassador William Roebuck, the Deputy Special Envoy to the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, met with General Abdi “to discuss developments, steps to improve relations, and [the] joint campaign against ISIS” in northeast Syria.

The meeting comes after General Abdi said on Saturday that the Syrian Kurdish forces would not back down in the face of a Turkish incursion, but rather respond with military force.

The SDF commander reiterated that a repeat of the situation in Afrin where Turkey advanced last year to capture the former Kurdish enclave would be “impossible.”

Read the full article and more in Kurdistan 24.