OUR ALLIES THE TURKS: Turkey Is Bombing Anti-ISIS Fighters in Iraq, Syria.

On Wednesday, Turkey launched one of its biggest airstrikes in decades — bombing 18 positions in northern Syria and killing an estimated 200 fighters.

But the strikes north of Aleppo didn’t involve President Bashar al-Assad’s army, or any of the main groups fighting his government like the Free Syrian Army, the Jihadi militia Jabhat Fatah al Sham, or even ISIS.

Instead, Turkey bombed People’s Protection Units, or YPG — Kurdish militia the U.S. considers the most effective force against ISIS in Syria.

Turkey has sent 2,000 troops into Iraq, where they are watching the massive military operation aimed at recapturing Mosul from the extremists. Baghdad maintains Turkey has violated its sovereignty and on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for an ex-Mosul governor who allegedly “invited” in the troops.

These latest in a series of military moves reveal how the government of President Tayyip Erdogan is reasserting its historic territorial claims while also trying to crush the country’s mortal enemies — Kurdish separatists.

If Erdogan’s aim was to occupy the Syrian- and Iraqi-owned Kurdish territories in order to permanently solve “the Kurdish problem,” what would he be doing any differently?