Airline pilots flying into Washington, D.

"President Trump and President Erdogan have reached an understanding over precisely what this operation is," Gulnur Aybet said from Ankara on Wednesday. "Turkish troops preparing to invade Syria from the north, Russian-backed forces from the south, ISIS fighters attacking Raqqa. Trump downplayed the alliance with the Kurds, 11,000 of whom died fighting to help the US mission against ISIS. Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah pointed to the sense that once Trump pulled the US back, the Turkish attack was inevitable. Trump claimed he has stopped Erdogan from moving into Syria "from virtually the first day" he was in office.