US forces start Syria border pullback, alarming Kurds

Qamishli: US forces in northern  Syria  started pulling back Monday from areas along the Turkish border ahead of a feared military invasion by Ankara that Kurdish forces say would spark a jihadist resurgence.   The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said in a statement that “US forces withdrew from the border areas with Turkey” in northeast  Syria .
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor confirmed that US forces had pulled back from key positions in Ras al-Ain and Tal Abyad.
The White House on Sunday said that Turkey would “soon be moving forward with its long-planned operation”.
It said US troops in northern  Syria  would no longer be “in the immediate area” near the border with Turkey, nor would they support Ankara’s operations.
On Monday, the US-backed SDF said such an operation would reverse years of successful Kurdish-led operations to defeat the Islamic State group and allow some of its surviving leaders to come out of hiding.