Recently, Syria has been at the epicenter of international news after a recent decision by President Donald Trump to remove United States soldiers from Northeastern Turkey, an area that was controlled by an ethnic minority group in Syria known as the Kurds. The Kurds historically have helped the United States in its efforts to fight off the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, more commonly known as ISIS, efforts which, for the most part, have been successful.

Now, with the decision by President Trump to remove troops from the area, the Kurds have been subjected to the fists of Turkey, causing much controversy on the international affairs realm. After the order to remove troops from the Northeastern area on Oct. 6 by President Donald Trump, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey had launched air strikes on various border-towns in an effort to clear the area of any Kurdish forces and later sent down ground troops to secure it.

Over the course of 11 days of the Operation Peace Spring according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 120 civilians have died and hundreds more of the Syrian Democratic Forces and Syrian National Army fighters have lost their lives from this operation alone. Amnesty International has cited numerous war crimes against Turkey, with its Secretary General Kumi Naidoo stating that “Turkish military forces and their allies have displayed an utterly callous disregard for civilian lives, launching unlawful deadly attacks in residential areas that have killed and injured civilians.”

Most recently, Russia has called in forces to patrol the area to stop any further conflict, essentially replacing the role of America in the region.