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Turkey advised the United States ahead of its air strikes in Syria against US-backed Kurdish militia, and Washington is in contact with Ankara about the way forward, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Sunday during a flight to Asia."Turkey was candid,"Mattis said, without disclosing the US reaction to Turkey's notification."They warned us before they launched the aircraft they were going to do it, in consultation with us."And we are working now on the way ahead. We'll work this out. Turkey has legitimate security concerns,"Mattis said, noting it was the only NATO ally with an active insurgency inside its borders. At the same time, Mattis said the US military was deployed in Syria in a way that allowed it to ensure that US-provided weaponry was being used to battle insurgents, not Turkey. (Reuters)
