Kurdish fighters who defeated Islamic State across much of Syria with U.S. help will struggle to fend off the Turkish army and its Syrian rebel allies who thrust across the border on Wednesday in a long-threatened offensive. Under Turkish attack after their U.S. allies withdrew from part of the border, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – which the Kurdish YPG militia spearheads – is heavily outgunned by NATO’s second-largest military. While the United States has armed and trained the SDF through years of fighting IS, Washington held back from supplying its Kurdish allies with a more sophisticated arsenal, reflecting the needs of the battle but also Turkish concerns. “The YPG don’t have heavy weapons (from the U.S.) that would be useful against Turkish aircraft or tanks,” a YPG source told Reuters. “The heaviest weapons we got from the U.S. are some mortar shells, nothing heavier. No […]