Turkey’s plans to expand its Operation Euphrates Shield in northern Syria and isolate Kurdish forces in the region appear to be backfiring.
After Turkey liberated al-Bab from the Islamic State (IS), it turned toward Manbij, which is controlled by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) and its Syrian allies, only to encounter US flags northwest of the town and Russian and Syrian national flags to the southwest. Now a similar scenario is being played out in Afrin.