It's been a little over a week since Turkey began bombing both Daesh targets in Syria and militant bunkers belonging to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in northern Iraq. By now we know they don't intend on slowing down either front.
But it's looking more and more likely Ankara's got its sights set on another Kurdish group that might raise more international eyebrows that going after the PKK. The Syrian Kurdish force Peoples Protection Units (YPG) is reporting heightened aggression from Turkish war planes on their territory.
Here's the statement.
This isn't the first time a statement like this has come out. Last week, as Turkey's campaign was just taking off, the YPG claimed a cross border attack by Turkish forces on a small town outside Kobane injured both YPG personnel and their Free Syrian Army allies.
Meanwhile, Ankara has been ambiguous about where they stand on the YPG, but things have not looked very positive.
From an international perspective, the problem here is that the Syrian Kurdish militia is one of the most active fighting forces on the ground against Daesh in Syria. Unlike the PKK, they are directly, heavily supported by US coalition airstrikes and have a allied fighting relationship with several Free Syrian Army brigades in areas along the Turkish border.
NATO and the US have so far quietly backed the PKK bombardments as Turkey's right to defend its borders. While it still made NATO nervous, that move was easier to swallow because many countries still regard the PKK as a terrorist organization. But things might get more complicated if one of the US's closest allies in the Syrian conflict really is in Turkey's crosshairs.
