Hundreds protest in Lebanon against Turkey offensive in Syria

Hundreds of protesters demonstrated in Lebanon Monday against Turkey’s military offensive in Syria’s Kurdish enclave of Afrin, AFP reported. The protesters, some of them refugees and others members of Lebanon’s long-established Kurdish community, gathered near the US embassy on the outskirts of Beirut. “We brought an end to the Islamic State group (IS, formerly ISIS) in the world and now the entire world is against us,” one demonstrator was quoted as saying. The Kurds in Syria were the main partner on the ground for the US-led coalition that has carried out thousands of airstrikes against the jihadists since 2014. Now many feel Washington and its allies in the coalition are doing little to protect them from neighboring Turkey, which is alarmed by the consolidation of Kurdish-held territory along its border with Syria.