According to Newsweek, the Turkish government’s bombings against Kurdish allies are now striking against American soldiers.

Citing both Iraqi Kurdish intelligence officials and Pentagon officials, the report said that special forces in the Mashtenour hill in the city of Kobani fell under artillery fire from Turkey, which is conducting their so-called “Operation Peace Spring” against the Kurdish people.

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President Donald Trump gave the go-ahead to Turkey after he wanted to get off the phone with an angry Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He had threatened he would storm the border to create his so-called “safe zone.”

According to a senior Pentagon official, the Turkish forces should have been aware of where the U.S. was positioned “down to the grid.” So, it’s unclear why they would begin firing on the American soldiers. There were somewhere between 15 and 100 troops in the area, the official said, describing it as a “small number below company level.”

“A senior Pentagon official said shelling was so heavy that the U.S. personnel considered firing back in self-defense,” a Politico reporter tweeted.

“A senior Pentagon official said shelling was so heavy that the U.S. personnel considered firing back in self-defense.” https://t.co/by7aleTUXq — Natasha Bertrand (@NatashaBertrand) October 11, 2019

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Defense Secretary Mark Espers tried to convince reporters that 50 Special Forces Operators were repositioned near the Syrian border.