Exclusive: U.S.-backed Syrian forces halt counter-Islamic State operations - sources

WASHINGTON/BEIRUT (Reuters) - U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters have halted operations for now against Islamic State in Syria as Turkey launches a military offensive in Syria's northeast, two U.S. officials and a Kurdish military source said on Wednesday. "The SDF stopped the anti-ISIS operations because it's impossible to carry out any operation while you are being threatened by a large army right on the northern border," the Kurdish military source said. One of the U.S. officials, who spoke on cond