{"id":41448,"date":"2019-10-10T19:17:54","date_gmt":"2019-10-10T19:17:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/10\/10\/us-backed-syrian-forces-claim-turkey-bombed-a-commando-camp-housing-coalition-trained-counterterrorism-forces\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T03:25:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T03:25:30","slug":"us-backed-syrian-forces-claim-turkey-bombed-a-commando-camp-housing-coalition-trained-counterterrorism-forces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/armytimes\/flashpoints\/2019\/10\/10\/us-backed-syrian-forces-claim-turkey-bombed-a-commando-camp-housing-coalition-trained-counterterrorism-forces\/","title":{"rendered":"US-backed Syrian forces claim Turkey bombed a commando camp housing coalition-trained counterterrorism forces"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

U.S.-backed Kurdish forces<\/a> in Syria claim a Turkish air strike targeted a training camp housing a secretive coalition-trained commando force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkish forces launched an operation to clear Kurdish militants from northern Syria on Wednesday following the withdrawal of a small number of U.S. special operations forces from the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Syrian Democratic Forces press office on Thursday Tweeted out pictures it claimed were of the bombed out training camp.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SDF claim the camp housed members of the Yekineyen Anti-terror, or YAT \u2014 an anti-ISIS commando force that the SDF says \u201coperates alongside\u201d U.S. forces and the coalition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Photos posted by the SDF and YPG press offices have often depicted the anti-ISIS counterterror force brandishing American weapons, optics and night vision devices associated with other U.S.-trained commando partner forces across the Middle East.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pentagon has not acknowledged training or providing night vision tech to the YAT, and questions posed by Military Times to the Defense Department and Operation Inherent Resolve regarding the bombed commando camp and coalition assistance to the unit have yet to be answered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group is controversial due to its affiliation to the People\u2019s Protection Units, or YPG, a Kurdish militant group that operates under the larger SDF banner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Turkey has long complained to the U.S. of the YPG\u2019s affiliation to the internationally designated terrorist group known as the Kurdistan Workers\u2019 Party or PKK.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the SDF says Turkey is now targeting the very forces tasked with taking out ISIS sleeper cells. On Saturday, a YAT unit captured ISIS commander Shafaq al-Hachim, according to the SDF press office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Destroying the commando unit could further jeopardize anti-ISIS operations and allow the jihadi group to reemerge and mobilize larger forces on the battlefield.<\/p>\n\n\n\t