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Executive Summary for May 1st

We review the key developments in Syria, including Turkey’s renewed threats against U.S. allies, an important strategic advance against ISIS by the SDF and the Pentagon’s report into civilian deaths caused by coalition airstrikes.

Published on May 1, 2017 Read time Approx. 2 minutes

Turkey Dials Up Anti-Kurd Rhetoric Despite U.S. Border Presence

Turkey’s President Erdogan has threatened further airstrikes on Kurdish forces in Syria, Al Jazeera reports. The Turkish leader’s statement on Sunday follows reports of an increased U.S. military presence on the Syrian-Turkish border, deployed over the weekend to protect YPG forces, the U.S.’s Syrian-Kurdish allies.

Erdogan claims to have been “seriously saddened” by footage and images of U.S. military vehicles patrolling the Syrian side of the border with Turkey, ostensibly to act as a “buffer” between Turkey and the YPG. The Turkish president then reiterated his vow of further airstrikes against “terrorists.” Last week, Turkish airstrikes targeted Kurdish PKK forces in northern Iraq and Syria, resulting in 70 deaths, and incensing the U.S.

“Unfortunately … the presence of an American flag along with the [insignia] of a terror organization called YPG in a convoy has seriously saddened us,” Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul. “I said yesterday: ‘We can come unexpectedly in the night.’ I really meant that. We are not going to tip off the terror groups, and the Turkish armed forces could come at any moment. Better they live in fear than we have worries.”

SDF Put ISIS on the Back Foot in Battle for Tabqa

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) have claimed an important victory over the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) by taking control of the old quarters of the strategically important northern Syrian town of Tabqa, reports Reuters.

The U.S.-backed alliance of Kurdish and Arabic groups have now hemmed ISIS forces into the modern part of the town, alongside the reservoir of Syria’s largest dam. Controlling the town – and the dam – is a hugely important goal in the SDF’s bid to drive ISIS from their stronghold of Raqqa, 25 miles (40km) east and downstream of Tabqa.

The advance was confirmed by the U.K.-based monitor Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), who say the SDF now controls around 80 percent of Tabqa.

Pentagon: 352 Civilians Killed in Coalition Attacks on ISIS since 2014

The Pentagon said in a statement on Sunday that 352 civilians have died in coalition airstrikes on ISIS targets in Syria and Iraq since 2014, the Guardian reports.

The report, a result of an investigation by the U.S. military’s Combined Joint Task Force, stated that this number did not include ongoing investigations into recent attacks such as last month’s airstrike in Mosul, Iraq, which is believed to have resulted in more than 100 civilian fatalities. It also falls far below figures offered by independent monitoring groups such as Airwars, who estimate that at least 3,164 civilian deaths can be attributed to coalition airstrikes.

“We regret the unintentional loss of civilian lives … and express our deepest sympathies to the families and others affected by these strikes,” the Pentagon said in the statement.

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