This comes as the Trump administration is ending its support for a Kurdish-led militia fighting ISIS, as Turkish troops mass near a northern town held by the Kurds. Since 2014, the U.S. backed the YPG militia with weapons and logistics, but is withdrawing the support as Turkey prepares to invade Syrian territory it controls. Last week, President Trump ordered the withdrawal of all 2,000 U.S. troops from Syria. The pullout reportedly came after Trump spoke by phone on December 15 with Turkey’s authoritarian president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The White House later said Erdogan had invited Trump to a meeting in Turkey in 2019 and that Trump is “open to a potential meeting.”