The US military is setting up all-new observation posts in northern Syria

The US military will begin to set up observation posts in northern Syria to help Turkey protect its border from threats looming across the war-torn country.

This could prevent skirmishes in areas near the Turkish border from distracting US-backed combatants from their mission to defeat ISIS. However, this accumulation could anger American lawmakers, some of whom consider that the mission in Syria away from the initial goal of defeating ISIS.

"It's a change now," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told the press on Wednesday. "We are setting up observation posts at several places along the Syrian border, because we want to be the people who call the Turks and warn them if we see anything coming out of an area in which we operate. "

Mattis said the decision was made in close consultation with Turkey, NATO ally, who has conducted several offensive operations in Syria over the past few years to confront militant groups that she said constituted a threat.

"We are going to track down any threats we can spot in Turkey," said Mattis. "It means we will talk to the Turkish army on the other side of the border."

The new observation posts will not need additional troops, he added.

The observation posts will be "very clearly identified" for day and night operations, so that Turkish forces know their location, according to Mattis. The US military also began joint patrols with Turkish troops in uniform this month as part of a roadmap to alleviate tensions in the region between the two NATO allies.

"What this is all about is to make sure that the people we fought in the [Middle Euphrates River Valley] are not drawn from this fight and that we can crush what's left of the geography [ISIS] caliphate, "said Mattis.

ISIS is largely relegated to a pocket of land near the Syrian-Iraq border. The fighting has been exceptionally difficult because it is one of the last places where the terrorist group still has territory and they are determined not to lose it.

The United States has also struggled to prevent one of the most lethal contingents of the Syrian Democratic Forces – the Kurdish YPG – from abandoning the struggle against the Islamic State in order to move towards the north, where they will collide with the Turkish army and the forces of substitution.

Turkey and the Kurds have a long history of conflict. Turkey regards the YPG fighters as an offshoot of the Kurdish PKK, a terrorist group recognized by the US State Department.

At the same time, US authorities have consistently praised the YPG for their role in reclaiming ISIS-backed territory backed by US air power.

"We are not saying that the GPJ is identical to the PKK," said Mattis. "And the Syrian Democratic Forces, which have lost thousands of soldiers killed and wounded in the fight against the Islamic State, have been distracted by the instability that reigns around Afrin and Manbij [in northern Syria]so they did not stay fully focused. "

Observation posts could play an important role in periodic clashes between Turkish and Kurdish forces. However, the Pentagon's mission in Syria has also been the subject of scrutiny in recent months by members of Congress, who believe that prolonged accumulation in the country is misguided.

A bipartisan group of legislators from the House of Armed Forces Committee interviewed Pentagon officials about the war in Syria at the end of September.

Massachusetts Representative Seth Moulton, a former Marine Corps Infantry Officer, has expressed concern over the use of US troops to recapture towns and keep them separate from a united Syrian state. in the long run, which he called "medieval kingdoms".

The US presence in Syria is located near Jordan near Al-Tanf, north of Syria at Manbij, along the Iraqi border near Al Qaim and Abu Kamal, as well as in Abu Dhabi. other parts of northeastern Syria, where the US Forces Democratic Forces.