Turkish Media Blamed for Map of US Military Posts in Syria

The spokesperson for Turkeys' president says the government had no role in the publication by the Turkish state-run news agency of a map showing US military posts in Syria, the AP reports. The US military said it had raised concerns with Ankara after Anadolu Agency published a map showing 10 locations where it says US troops are located. The posts span a stretch of northern Syria controlled by Syrian Kurdish forces that the US supports but that Turkey considers a terrorist group.

Spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin said on Thursday the news article that contained the map was based on the agency's "own newsgathering network," insisting that the government had not given "the information or directed the agency." Kalin says Turkey has no "thought or intention that would endanger the lives of our allies' soldiers." (More Syria stories.)