WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Pentagon officials on Friday denied the U.S. is abandoning its Syrian Kurdish allies in the face of a Turkish military offensive, although the future of a counterterrorism partnership with the Kurds was in grave doubt.

"We have not abandoned the Kurds. Let me be clear about that," Defense Secretary Mark Esper told reporters. "We have not abandoned them. Nobody green-lighted this operation by Turkey — just the opposite. We pushed back very hard at all levels for the Turks not to commence this operation."

He spoke shortly before American forces came under Turkish artillery...