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(CNN) - “The Americans sold us,” say the Kurds who protect the US base in Syria
Kurdish forces guarding a US military base in northern Syria told CNN they feel they have been betrayed by their US allies after US President Donald Trump cleared the way for a Turkish operation against them.
"The Americans sold us and we do not expect them to help us fight the Turkish troops," a Kurdish fighter told CNN, while an American flag flew over the base.
READ: Did Trump betray the Kurds in Syria?
US personnel at the base in northern Syria said they could not speak to CNN because of the sensitive nature of their work there. But, according to the comments of the Kurds who protect the base, their relationship has become strained.
Although US forces have withdrawn from the border area where Turkey is organizing its military operation to clear Kurdish forces, there are still US military personnel deployed in parts of northern Syria.
On Thursday, Trump said: "We have no soldiers in Syria." But that's not true.
The United States still has about 1,000 soldiers in Syria, military officials told CNN and other media outlets. US troops were removed from the observation posts within the area of operations in Turkey, but have not been withdrawn from the country.
Less than an hour after the president made the comment, a senior State Department official reaffirmed that the military mission in Syria was ongoing.
"We had and still have an important military mission there to ensure the lasting defeat of ISIS, also to maintain the stability of northeastern Syria and the region given our other critical missions in the Near East."
The official expressed serious concerns about the Turkish operation, but did not go so far as to criticize Trump.
"It endangers our allies in the fight against terror, the (Syrian Democratic Forces, SDS)," said the official. "It undermines our efforts to defeat ISIS by pulling these forces away from the SDS from the battle in the south and frankly forcing our troops to focus on the military aspects of the invasion."
The SDS have been a key partner of the United States in the fight against ISIS. Shortly after Turkey launched its operation, the SDS suspended its anti-terrorist operations against the group to focus on the Turkish offensive.
MORE: A people without an official country and a strategic force against ISIS in the Middle East: that's how the Kurds are
For now, US troops are still located along with the SDS in other parts of Syria and remain in other places, such as Manbij, according to a US defense official. While they are still “working” with the SDS, operations against ISIS have been suspended so that they do not carry out operations together, according to the same official.
Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Friday that the United States is not abandoning its Kurdish allies, even when it made it clear that the United States will not intervene in the fight.
"We are not abandoning our Kurdish associated forces and US troops remain with them in other parts of Syria," Esper told reporters at the Pentagon.
“We remain in close coordination with the Syrian Democratic Forces that helped us destroy the physical caliphate of ISIS, but I will not put the members of the US service in the middle of a long-standing conflict between the Turks and the Kurds, that’s not why we are in Syria, ”said Esper.
US advisers informed the SDS that the United States will not defend them from Turkey. And the feeling of abandonment among some Kurds here is palpable.
Outside the US base, a cartel commemorates Kurdish fighters who have died in the battle against ISIS.
On Friday, a short distance from the base, a funeral was held for a 25-year-old FDS fighter killed by a round of Turkish mortar.
A friend of the family, speaking on a speaker, reflected how raw emotions have become.
"Turkey has been attacking our cities and towns because the United States gave them permission."
Ryan Browne, Barbara Starr and Jennifer Hansler of CNN contributed to this news
Kurds
