US military leaders are reportedly “outraged” at the recent escalation of Turkish airstrikes against Iraqi Kurdistan, with concerns centered both on the risk of sucking the US into yet another regional conflict and the danger that Turkish warplanes could inadvertently bomb American forces in the region.
The US has a number of ground troops in Iraqi Kurdistan training the Peshmerga, and has refused to tell Turkey where those troops are exactly, instead giving them broad swathes of territory to avoid. Turkey has countered by giving the US 10 minutes advanced notice when warplanes are headed into those areas, telling them to get out of the way.
Turkey has been fighting a war with the Kurdish PKK since the early 1980s, and is targeting PKK bases in northern Iraq. The lack of coordination with US forces inside the same territory, however, has raised a lot of concerns about the risk of friendly-fire.
Turkey is also attacking the Kurdish YPG in northern Syria, and trying to prevent a linkup of Syrian and Iraqi Kurdistan into a contiguous region. This has fueled enormous tension between the Turkish government and Kurds in general, and with the US suddenly welcome at Turkish airbases, they risk losing their alliance with those same Kurds.
Turkey has maintained it is being extremely selective with strikes inside Iraq, and has denied reports of civilian deaths. At the same time, US officials believe that if a Turkish airstrike were to kill American ground troops, Turkey “would blame us.”
"…raised a lot of concerns about the risk of friendly-fire."
First, it wouldn't be "friendly fire." The US is once again being worked for purposes counter to what the US is saying they are trying to do. The Turks don't give a ratsass about any US troops in norther Iraq. That's why the US doesn't tell them exactly where they are because the Turks don't want the Kurds trained and they don't want the US and the Kurds as allies because the US always supplies their allies with war materiel, making it harder for the Turks to destroy the Kurds. I'm sure the Turks see no difference between the PKK and the general population of Kurds and the Turks attacks on all Kurds guarantees a self-fulfilling prophecy of continued antagonism – at least until all the Kurds are eliminated.
The US would be better served to get the hell out of the entire mess and let the locals figure it out on their own. Stop providing weapons to all combatants, including so-called "allies."
Haha, Uncle Sam has a Big Problem – His vassals has slipped the leash! The irony is delicious: Uncle Sam coordinates with His sworn evil enemy Iran (via the back channel, but still coordinating) while His "NATO ally" Turkey is targeting His own soldiers.
Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey are all telling Uncle Sam to take a hike. Maybe it's good advice…
Everybody involved in these Middle East conflicts has a different agenda. In baseball, you can't tell the players without a scorecard. In the Middle East, you can't tell them even with a scorecard. An ally today is an enemy tomorrow, and an enemy here is an ally there. This is a classic example of why you don't get involved in other people's civil wars. But we never seem to learn that, do we?
The US probably does not want to given out location of its troops because it is training terrorist cadres of the communist PKK/YPG calked peshmerga in Kurdish. This is not UN approved activity. Turkey is within its right to attack guerrillas conducting terrorist attacks on its armed forces including those that are training them.