Despite the official intentions of Shield of the Euphrates, the news from the field confirms what was announced by Online Defense in the past months. The spokesperson of the Türk Hava Kuvvetleri, Ankara Air Force announces that unknown Turkish jets have hit 26 targets YPG (Popular Protection Unit), the most significant component of the SDF (Syrian Democratic Forces), Kurdish militias operating in northeastern Syria.
The attack was concluded on Thursday morning 20 October, but the video showing images of the bombing was provided by the Turkish General Staff only today.
According to Ankara, all the targets would have been achieved and killed around 200 militiamen. The Kurdish agency ANHA linked to YPG speaks of three cities affected but confirms only 15 dead.
Turkey regards the Syrian Kurdish guerrillas as the domestic ones of the PKK and addresses them with the generic term "terrorists". No further details were provided on the action, carried out north-east of Aleppo within the borders of the Governorate of the same name.
The US State Department immediately distanced itself from the operation, stating that "Any action taken in the region without coordination can only benefit the Islamic State".
Damascus also officially protests for the Turkish initiative, considered a violation of the airspace and declares itself ready to take down "Any additional unauthorized NATO aircraft" that spills over into Syrian territory. Despite the official note of the Ministry of Defense, it is easy to guess, however, that a reduction in the military potential of the Kurds is also useful to the Assad government.
The Kurds of the YPG they represent the militarily more consistent wing of the cartel SDF (backed by the US and made up of many groups, including Arab militiamen) and these days they are engaged in direct confrontation with the fundamentalists of ISIS, but at the same time they are fighting against the rebel Islamist groups armed from Turkey that operate close to the border turkish-Syrian. 
At the center of the ideology that has federated the various components of the Kurdish landscape, there is the anti-fundamentalist and secular approach that converges towards a federalist vision of Syria, in which to insert the region of Rojava. Turkey, whose tone with Washington has risen since the US aid to the Kurds has become abundant, has the clear objective of preventing territorial connections between Syrian Kurds and armed groups of the PKK active in its territory and to contain independence ambitions.
Thus we are witnessing the curious situation of an all-against-all (Islamist and Kurdish Islamists against ISIS, Kurdish versus filipino Islamists) in which collateral damage for the civilian population increases exponentially.
Turkey, regardless of Western warnings, continues its military operations and considers every action as a consequence of the terrorist attacks perpetrated in its territory (in particular the province of Hatay). The night before the bombardment of the posts YPG, the Turkish army had subjected to an intense artillery barrage the Syrian city of Afrin, distant about 20 km from the border.
To understand the evolution of the Turkish intervention and its real implications on a regional scale, it will be decisive the outcome of the final battle in Aleppo, whose liberation by the Syrian Armed Forces would lead to an immediate reorganization of the balances in the north east of Syria and consequently throughout the country.
(photo: Türk Hava / Kara Kuvvetleri)
