From the door of a half-empty kebab restaurant in the southern Turkish town of Karkamis can be seen a gaping hole in the ground. It’s a reminder to the customers here, and all the town’s residents, of the danger they faced and continue to face.

One man walked through that door grumbling about his daughter, mixing Kurdish words with his Turkish ones in a heavily accented voice.

“She is still in fear, doesn’t leave her mother for a moment,” he said to the owner.

Turkey’s army needs just a few days to be ready for a ground incursion into northern Syria and such a decision may come at a cabinet meeting on Monday, Turkish officials said, as Turkish forces bombarded a Kurdish militia across the border.

Howitzers fired daily from Turkey have struck Kurdish YPG targets for a week, while warplanes have carried out air strikes.

How is it possible that our NATO ally, Turkey, is firing rockets and conducting air strikes “danger close” to American forces in eastern Syria? And at the same time, Iran is attacking Kurdish separatists in the Northwest of that country? What the HELL is going on?

We are only being told 1/4 truths, and mostly lies, about why we still have military forces (and a ton of CIA etc) in eastern Syria. The three maps below will go a long way toward understanding the real situation, which is preventing Iran from establishing a land corridor to the Mediterranean.

The Kurds in northeastern Syria have established their semi-autonomous administration which they call “Rojava”. They are now under threat of an increased invasion and occupation by Turkish ground troops, which could end in ethnic cleansing and mass casualties.

Turkish President Erdogan has demanded for years that the US must stop supporting the Syrian Defense Forces (SDF) and their armed wing the Peoples Protection Units (YPG) which serve as the army of “Rojava”.

There’s another Special Military Operation on the market. No, it’s not Russia “denazifying” and “demilitarizing” Ukraine – and, therefore, it’s no wonder that this other operation is not ruffling feathers across the collective West.

Turkey has reportedly laid out its conditions for refraining from a ground offensive against the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Syria, Kurdish media reported.