Despite the indications that ISIS forces in Raqqa were moving underground in anticipation of US attacks, the group continues to remain on the offensive across Northern Syria, and is once again pressing Kurdish territory.
ISIS has reportedly taken 21 Kurdish villages in the past 24 hours and is once again mounting an offensive against the oft-threatened Kurdish border city of Ayn al-Arab.
The Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) has once again issued a “call to arms” to Kurds in both Syria and Turkey to defend Ayn al-Arab. Such calls have worked in the past at securing large numbers of volunteer fighters to fend off ISIS threats.
As the fighting ratchets up around the city, an unidentified drone looms overhead. The drone is likely to be part of the US surveillance operation in the area, in anticipation of expanding the air war into Syria.
The Turkish government could earn huge points for negotiations with its Kurds if it intervened now to help them. It would be making the point that there are advantages to being part of a big power in that neighborhood, and showing good faith. An armored division and a couple of squadrons of Phantoms in a few days could repair at least some of the ill will built up for decades.