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Turkey airstrikes conducted without coordination as expected from partner - Pentagon

WASHINGTON, April 26 (KUNA) -- The Pentagon said Wednesday that the Turkish airstrikes against Kurdish YPG forces in Iraq and Syria were conducted "without proper coordination" with the US-led coalition or the government of Iraq.
Spokesman of the Combined Joint Task Force - Operation Inherent Resolve John Dorrian told journalists that the strikes the Turkish Air Force conducted last night also killed several Kurdish Peshmerga fighters in the vicinity of Sinjar.
"The strikes were conducted without proper coordination with the coalition or the government of Iraq. We're troubled by that," he stressed.
He indicated, "There was less than an hour of notification time before the strikes were conducted. That's not enough time." He added, "this was notification, certainly not coordination as you would expect from a partner and an ally in the fight against so-called Islamic State (IS) in Syria and Iraq)." Dorrian noted that the Turks were informed, "the amount of time that was being provided for the strikes was inadequate for us to assure safety of our forces on the ground.
"We had forces within six miles of the strikes," he indicated.
As for the effects they achieved, he affirmed, "they killed a significant number of Peshmerga fighters. These are fighters that had been very important to the fight against IS and then our partnered forces." Dorrian called on all forces "to remain focused" on the fight to defeat IS, "which is the greatest threat to regional and worldwide peace and security." He said, "There has been a significant amount of diplomatic activity between the two sides" since the strikes occurred.
The US said on Tuesday it was "deeply concerned" by the Turkish strikes, saying those concerns were expressed to the government of Turkey "directly". (end) si.hb