U.S. officials are alarmed that a buildup of Turkish troops and militias along the border with Syria could signal that a large-scale invasion into territory held by U.S.-backed Syrian Kurds is imminent.
Ilham Ahmed, an official in the Syrian Kurds' civilian administration, wrote in a letter to President-elect Donald Trump that a Turkish military operation appeared likely, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, adding that Ahmed urged Trump to press Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan against such a move.
The forces include militia fighters, Turkish uniformed commandos, and artillery concentrated near Kobani, a Kurdish-majority city in Syria on the northern border with Turkey, the Journal reported, citing unnamed U.S. officials. A Turkish cross-border operation could be imminent, one of the U.S. officials said.
The buildup began after Syria dictator Bashar al-Assad's regime was overthrown earlier this month and appears similar to Turkish military moves ahead of its 2019 invasion of northeast Syria. Assad's fall led to increased Turkish operations against U.S.-backed and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, which Ankara views as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which Turkey and the U.S. consider a terrorist organization.
"We are focused on it and pressing for restraint," another U.S. official said.
Turkey's goal is to "establish de facto control over our land before you take office, forcing you to engage with them as rulers of our territory," Ahmed wrote to Trump in the letter viewed by the Journal. "If Turkey proceeds with its invasion, the consequences will be catastrophic."
The U.S. has about 900 troops in northern Syria working with the SDF to destroy the remnants of ISIS. U.S.-brokered ceasefire talks between Syrian Kurds and Turkish-backed rebels in Kobani collapsed Monday without an agreement, the Journal reported, citing an SDF spokesman, who added the SDF is now seeing "significant military buildups" east and west of the city.
"From across the border, we can already see Turkish forces amassing, and our civilians live under the constant fear of imminent death and destruction," Ahmed wrote to Trump, according to the Journal.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said during Tuesday's briefing that the U.S. continues "to engage with Turkey about the situation in northern Syria."
"As we have said publicly, we do not believe it is in the interest of any party to see increased conflict in Syria," Miller said. "We don't want to see any party take advantage of the current unstable situation to advance their own narrow interests at the expense of the broader Syrian national interest. And those are conversations we're continuing to have with our Turkish allies."
During his first term, Trump partially withdrew U.S. troops from northeast Syria, paving the way for Turkey's invasion that displaced hundreds of thousands of Syrians, the Journal reported. The Trump administration helped to broker a ceasefire in exchange for the Kurds ceding miles of border territory to Turkey.
Although Trump won't take over from President Joe Biden until Jan. 20, Ahmed urged the president-elect to use his "unique approach to diplomacy" to persuade Erdogan to stop any planned operation.
"We believe you hold the power to prevent this catastrophe," Ahmed wrote. "President Erdogan has listened to you before, and we trust he will heed your call again."
Newsmax reached out to Trump's team for comment.