WASHINGTON, Nov 29 (KUNA) -- The US has decreased the number of military patrols which partner Syria's forces due to concern over a potential Turkish ground operation, the Pentagon revealed on Tuesday.
"We do remain concerned about a potential Turkish ground operation in Syria, and again, would urge restraint. I'm not going to speculate about whether or not Turkey is or is not going to do that," Defence Department spokesman Pat Ryder told reporters.
"Our focus is on the defeat ISIS campaign. In terms of coming occasion with our Turkish allies, we do maintain regular communication with them, whether it's at the U.S. Central Command level or at the operational level.
"And so, they have reduced the number of patrols that they're doing. And so that, therefore necessitates us to reduce the patrols. We've not redeployed any of our folks, we continue to stay very focused on countering the ISIS threat," he added.
"We would hope that there will be restraint, and that we can, again, as a as a coalition focus on the bigger threat at hand here, which is defeating ISIS," he said. (end) asj.sd