The
Pentagon strongly denied on Friday accusations that it had abandoned its Syrian Kurdish allies to a
Turkish military onslaught, which it said was destabilizing the region and doing "dramatic harm" to U.S.-Turkey relations.
U.S. President Trump's decision to pull back troops from Syria's border with
Turkey has been widely criticized in
Washington as a tacit "green light" for a Turkish offensive that intensified on Friday, with Turkish air and artillery strikes on Kurdish militia.
"Nobody green-lighted this operation by Turkey, just the opposite.