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  • These coffins

  • hold the bodies of fighters.

  • Members of a Kurdish-led

  • militia that's been the primary ally for the U.S.

  • in its war against ISIS in Syria.

  • But a few weeks ago, President Trump

  • withdrew U.S. troops from the northeast,

  • and gave Turkey the green light

  • to attack the Kurds in Syria.

  • This is the result.

  • Since the U.S. departed abruptly,

  • the story for the Kurds has changed.

  • They had hoped their sacrifice would

  • be a path to self governance.

  • Instead, they face loss everywhere.

  • We're visiting an elementary school

  • in the city of Hasaka.

  • It's being used as a makeshift shelter.

  • Around 180,000 people are now

  • displaced by recent fighting.

  • We meet Hamza Mustafa.

  • His town was one of the first to come under Turkish fire.

  • We travel

  • to Qamishli, a city on the border with Turkey, and visit

  • hospitals that have received casualties

  • from the frontlines.

  • More than 200 civilians

  • have been killed and hundreds wounded.

  • This is 8-year-old Sara.

  • Her mother says she was outside her home

  • when a Turkish shell landed in the street.

  • Her 13-year-old brother, Mohamed,

  • was killed on the spot.

  • Sara's grandfather rushed her here,

  • where doctors had to amputate her leg.

  • Turkey defends

  • its incursion by saying these fighters are terrorists.

  • They are

  • in fact linked to a Kurdish guerrilla group

  • that has launched attacks inside Turkey.

  • But for the last five years, they've

  • been the foot soldiers in the war against ISIS.

  • They say they've lost around 11,000 fighters, men

  • and women, in that conflict.

  • Cekdar spent years fighting alongside the Americans.

These coffins

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