Joint patrols resume in north Syria amid tension with Turkey

By HOGIR AL ABDO
Associated Press

QAMISHLI, Syria (AP) — U.S. troops have resumed joint patrols with Kurdish-led forces in northeast Syria days after they were stopped amid Turkish threats of a new ground incursion into the war-torn country. U.S. officials had said the patrols that resumed Saturday are not to counter Islamic State group militants. They say the patrols will be limited to areas around a sprawling camp housing mostly women and children linked to IS as well as prisons where the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces are holding thousands of extremists. Turkey has launched a barrage of airstrikes on suspected militant targets in northern Syria and Iraq in retaliation for a deadly bombing in Istanbul that Ankara blames on Kurdish groups.