US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis urged Turkey to exercise restraint in its military operations in northern Syria, which he said had disrupted the peaceful return of refugees and could prove to be an opening for al Qaeda and ISIS.
Mattis said Afrin had been stabilizing, prior to the Turkish military operation.
"In the Afrin area, we had actually gotten to the point where humanitarian aid was flowing, refugees were coming back in ... The Turkish incursion disrupts that effort," Reuters cited Mattis as saying.
