Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) announced legislation that would impose "crippling" sanctions on the government in Ankara shortly before US Vice President Mike Pence and Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey had agreed to a pause to let Kurdish forces withdraw from a "safe zone."

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The bill would target Turkish officials, end US military cooperation with the NATO ally and mandate sanctions over Turkey's purchase of a Russian S-400 missile defense system.

Leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations and House of Representatives Foreign Affairs committees also unveiled sanctions measures with bipartisan support on Thursday, with many of the same provisions.

"Turkey has legitimate national security concerns within Syria but they cannot be met by invasion and force of arms," Graham said in a statement.

Graham predicted his proposal would pass the Senate with enough support to overcome a possible veto by President Donald Trump.

Representative Eliot Engel, the Democratic chairman of the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, said it was far too soon to consider abandoning the sanctions push.

"I'm glad there's a ceasefire. It's a good sign, but let's see if it lasts and let's see what it really means," Engel told reporters.

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Pompeo and Netanyahu met in Jerusalem hours after Turkey agreed with the United States to pause its offensive on Kurdish forces in Syria.

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Turkey launched its assault against the Kurdish YPG militia in Syria last week after President Donald Trump pulled a US contingent out of the way, creating a new front in Syria's eight-year war and prompting 200,000 civilians to take flight.

Israel sees Syria's Kurds, once US allies, as a counterweight to Islamist insurgents in northern Syria. It also worries that its arch-foe Iran or local allies could fill the vacuum left by a disengaged United States.

The Kurds responded to the US withdrawal by inviting Syrian government forces, backed by Moscow and Tehran, into towns and cities in areas they control.

Pompeo said he and Netanyahu discussed "all the efforts we've made to push back against the threat not only to Israel but to the region and the world from the Islamic Republic of Iran."

"We shared our ideas about how we can ensure Middle East stability together, and how we would further our efforts to jointly combat all the challenges that the world confronts here in the Middle East," Pompeo told reporters with Netanyahu by his side.

Asked for his reaction to the pause in Turkey's offensive, Netanyahu said: "We hope things will turn out for the best."

Later on Friday, Pompeo will fly to Brussels for a meeting with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.

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They are part of the self-styled Syrian National Army, the shock troops in Turkey's offensive against US-allied Kurdish forces who were abandoned last week after US President Donald Trump ordered the withdrawal of American troops from northern Syria.

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The Syrian fighters, trained and funded by Turkey, present themselves as heirs to the uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad. But while they include some Islamic extremists and past members of some Syrian rebel factions, many are Arab and Turkmen fighters from northern and eastern Syria who have an axe to grind against the Kurds and a reputation for violence and looting.

"The main problem with these forces is their criminality," said Elizabeth Tsurkov, a fellow at the US-based Foreign Policy Research Institute who has interviewed dozens of the fighters and said they appear to be driven by a desire for power and money rather than by any specific ideology.

"Hatred of Kurds, a sense of Arab chauvinism, complete intolerance for any dissent, and just a desire to make a profit is what's driving most of the abuses," she said.

Since Turkey began funding the force in 2016, its fighters have yet to battle Assad's troops.

Instead, they have mostly fought in Turkey's cross-border offensives against the Islamic State group and the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-led militia that had partnered with the United States and battled ISIS extremists with far greater success.

In the latest offensive, the Turkish-led Syrian forces have pushed deep into northeastern Syria, an ethnically and religiously mixed region, raising fears of ethnic conflict and human rights abuses. Some of the factions allied with Turkey have been accused of banditry, and others include hard-line Islamic militants in their ranks.

Turkey views the Kurdish militia that forms the core of the SDF as a terrorist group because of its links to Kurdish fighters who have waged a decadeslong insurgency inside Turkey. After threatening for months to invade northeastern Syria and carve out a "safe zone" along the border, Turkey launched an offensive last week after Trump cleared the way for it by moving US troops out of the area.

As the situation on the ground descends into chaos and Syrian government troops move north to lend support to their former foes, the Kurds, Turkey's Syrian fighters are pouring across the border from Turkey, posting videos in which they threaten Kurdish "pigs" and "atheists."

Backed by Turkish airstrikes and artillery, the fighters have provided the bulk of the ground forces and taken the most casualties. At least 16 Syrian fighters have been killed compared to four Turkish soldiers since the operation began last week.

Over the weekend they captured a major highway that runs across northern Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the Turkey-backed fighters shot and killed six civilians along the road, including Hevreen Khalaf, a woman who led a Kurdish political party.

In a video circulated online, fighters can be seen rushing toward a bullet-ridden armored vehicle, saying they have captured a "pig." A woman's faint voice can be heard from within, saying she is the head of a political party. The video indicates Khalaf was captured alive and later died or was killed.

A US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss operational details, said "extremist Turkish proxies" had advanced along the highway, setting up checkpoints where they posed as Kurdish fighters and killed civilians.

In a series of tweets, one of the Turkey-backed groups, known as Ahrar al-Sharqiya, posted pictures of two supposed Kurdish fighters it said it had captured. Another video posted online showed the Syrian fighters screaming "God is greatest!" as they fired several rounds into a bound prisoner who resembled one of the captured men in the previous video.

A spokesman for Ahrar al-Sharqiya, Al-Harith Rabah, said his force had set up a checkpoint on the highway and fired at those who refused to stop. He said the man killed in the video was a Kurdish fighter in civilian clothes who had fought until he ran out of ammunition. He said the Turkey-backed force is investigating the shooting and had summoned the gunmen for questioning.

"We provided proof they were armed men," Rabah told The Associated Press. "Anyone on the battlefield, when there is resistance, one is obligated to react and deal with those who resist."

Turkish officials did not respond to a request for comment on the Syrian forces, some of whom are heard using religious language in some of the videos, even borrowing slogans from the ISIS group.

At least some of the factions include Islamic extremists. The Rojava Information Center, an activist collective in the Kurdish-held areas, has identified at least 40 former ISIS terrorists among the Turkey-backed fighters. Tsurkov said one faction is made up of fighters from Idlib, a stronghold for an al-Qaida-linked group, who are "less prone to criminality and just straight-up extremists."

That bodes ill for northeastern Syria, home to a patchwork of Kurdish, Christian, and other minority communities that have already suffered throughout the rise of ISIS and the devastating war that dismantled its self-styled caliphate.

The UN said more than 130,000 people have fled since the Turkish operation began. As Syrian Kurdish forces fall back, there are fears that those who remain will end up like the residents of Afrin, a Kurdish enclave in northwestern Syria seized by Turkey and its Syrian allies early last year.

Rights groups say the Turkish-backed fighters looted and destroyed the property of Kurdish civilians in Afrin. Last month, a UN commission said the overall security situation in and around Afrin "remained dire" as armed groups carved out their own fiefdoms. The Rojava Information Center said some factions have imposed a strict form of Islamic law.

"There is a general absence of rule of law and repeated incidents of kidnappings, torture, extortion and assassination," the UN commission said, adding that victims were "often of Kurdish origin as well as civilians perceived as being prosperous, including doctors, businessmen and merchants."

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The United States on Monday also called on Turkey to stop the invasion and declare a ceasefire, and Trump plans to send Vice President Mike Pence and National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien to Ankara as soon as possible in an attempt to begin negotiations. Pence said Trump spoke directly to Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who promised not attack the border town of Kobani, which in 2015 witnessed the Islamic State group's first defeat in a battle by US-backed Kurdish fighters.

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"President Trump communicated to him very clearly that the United States of America wants Turkey to stop the invasion, implement an immediate ceasefire, and to begin to negotiate with Kurdish forces in Syria to bring an end to the violence," Pence said.

"The United States of America simply is not going to tolerate Turkey's invasion in Syria any further. We are calling on Turkey to stand down, end the violence, and come to the negotiating table," the vice president said.

The US withdrawal was criticized at home and abroad as opening the door to a resurgence of the Islamic State group, whose violent takeover of Syrian and Iraqi lands five years ago was the reason American forces came in the first place.

Trump said the approximately 1,000 US troops who had been partnering with local Kurdish fighters to battle IS in northern Syria are leaving the country. They will remain in the Middle East, he said, to "monitor the situation" and to prevent a revival of IS – a goal that even Trump's allies say has become much harder as a result of the US pullout.

The Turks began attacks against the Syrian Kurdish fighters, whom the Turks see as terrorists, last week. On Monday, Syrian government troops moved north toward the border region, setting up a potential clash with Turkish-led forces.

Trump said Turkey's invasion is "precipitating a humanitarian crisis and setting conditions for possible war crimes," a reference to reports of Turkish-backed fighters executing Kurdish fighters on the battlefield.

The Kurdish forces previously allied with the US said they had reached a deal with Syrian President Bashar Assad's government to help them fend off Turkey's invasion, a move that brings Russian forces deeper into the conflict.

The Syrian army deployment is a victory for President Bashar Assad and his most powerful ally, Russia, giving them a foothold in the biggest remaining swath of the country that had been beyond their grasp.

They will now face Turkish armed forces along a new front line hundreds of miles long.

Syrian state media reported the army entered Manbij, a town that had been controlled by a militia allied to the Kurds. Earlier, it pushed into Tel Tamer, a town on the strategically important M4 highway that runs east-west around 30 km (20 miles) south of the frontier with Turkey.

State television later showed residents welcoming Syrian forces into the town of Ain Issa, which lies on another part of the highway, hundreds of miles away.

Ain Issa commands the northern approaches to Raqqa, former capital of the Islamic State caliphate, which Kurdish fighters recaptured from the militants two years ago in one of the biggest victories of a US-led campaign.

Much of the M4 skirts the southern fringe of territory where Turkey aims to set up a "safe zone" inside Syria. Turkey said it had seized part of the highway. An official of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said clashes were ongoing.

US strategy unraveling

The swift Syrian government deployments underscored how suddenly the strategy the United States had pursued in Syria for the past five years had unraveled. Washington said on Sunday it was pulling out its entire force of 1,000 troops, which had provided air support, ground assistance and training for Syrian Kurds against Islamic State since 2014.

In his sanctions announcement, Trump said he was halting negotiations on a $100 billion trade deal with Turkey and raising steel tariffs back up to 50%. Trump also imposed sanctions on three senior Turkish officials and Turkey's Defense and Energy Ministries.

"I am fully prepared to swiftly destroy Turkey's economy if Turkish leaders continue down this dangerous and destructive path," Trump said.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the sanctions will hurt an already weak Turkish economy. Pence said Washington will continue to ramp up the sanctions "unless Turkey is willing to embrace a ceasefire, come to the negotiating table, and end the violence."

The move was quickly criticized as too little, too late by the top Democrat in Congress.

"His announcement of a package of sanctions against Turkey falls very short of reversing that humanitarian disaster," said US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), normally a staunch Trump supporter, said he was "gravely concerned" by events in Syria and Trump's response so far.

Withdrawing US forces from Syria "would re-create the very conditions that we have worked hard to destroy and invite the resurgence of ISIS," he said in a statement. "And such a withdrawal would also create a broader power vacuum in Syria that will be exploited by Iran and Russia, a catastrophic outcome for the United States' strategic interests."

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Trump is weakening America.

"To be clear, this administration's chaotic and haphazard approach to policy by tweet is endangering the lives of US troops and civilians," Menendez said in a statement.

However, Trump got quick support from Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who earlier had lambasted his withdrawal decision as "shortsighted," ''irresponsible," and "unnerving to its core." Graham said he was asked to join the president and his team for phone calls with the key leaders in the conflict.

"President Trump made it clear to President Erdoğan this incursion is widely unpopular in the United States, greatly destabilizing to the region, is putting in jeopardy our successes against ISIS, and will eventually benefit Iran," Graham said.

In a series of tweets Monday, Trump defended his gamble that pulling US forces out of Syria would not weaken US security and credibility. He took sarcastic swipes at critics who say his Syria withdrawal amounts to a betrayal of the Kurds and plays into the hands of Russia.

"Anyone who wants to assist Syria in protecting the Kurds is good with me, whether it is Russia, China, or Napoleon Bonaparte," he wrote. "I hope they all do great, we are 7,000 miles away!"

Trump has dug in on his decision to pull out the troops, believing it fulfills a key campaign promise and will be a winning issue in the 2020 election, according to White House officials. He has said he aims to extract the US from "endless" wars in the Middle East.

This has effectively ended a five-year effort to partner with Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters to ensure a lasting defeat of the Islamic State group. Hundreds of IS supporters escaped a holding camp amid clashes between invading Turkish-led forces and Kurdish fighters, and analysts said an IS resurgence seemed more likely, just months after Trump declared the extremists defeated.

Trump spoke about the IS detainees in a phone call Monday with Kurdish General Mazloum Kobani. Pence said Mazloum assured the president that Kurdish forces would continue to support the prisons holding IS fighters.

New front line

In a speech during a visit to Azerbaijan, Monday, Erdoğan said: "We are determined to continue the operation until the end, without paying attention to threats."

"Our battle will continue until ultimate victory is achieved," he added.

The Turkish Defense Ministry said 560 militants had been "neutralized" since the operation began. Earlier, Erdogan said 500 militants had been killed, 26 surrendered and 24 were wounded so far.

The US exit leaves Turkey and Russia, as well as Iran, Assad's main Middle East ally, as Syria's undisputed foreign power brokers. Ankara and Moscow both predicted they would avoid conflict in Syria, even as the front line between them will now spread across the breadth of the country.

"There are many rumors at the moment. However, especially through the embassy and with the positive approach of Russia in Kobani, it appears there won't be any issues," Erdoğan said when asked about the prospect of confrontation with Russia.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov dismissed the suggestion that Russia could clash with Turkish forces. "We wouldn't even like to think of that scenario," he said.

Kobani, on the Turkish border, is one of the first Kurdish-held cities where reports emerged of possible Syrian government deployment.

American troops consolidated their positions in northern Syria on Monday and prepared to evacuate equipment in advance of a full withdrawal, a US defense official said.

The official, who was not authorized to be quoted by name, said US officials were weighing options for a potential future counter-IS campaign, including the possibility of waging it with a combination of air power and special operations forces based outside Syria, perhaps in Iraq.

The hurried preparations for a US exit were triggered by Trump's decision Saturday to expand a limited troop pullout into a complete withdrawal.

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Monday he would travel to NATO headquarters in Brussels next week to urge European allies to impose collective and individual "diplomatic and economic measures" against Turkey – a fellow North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally – for what Esper called Ankara's "egregious" actions.

Esper said Turkey's incursion had created an unacceptable risk to US forces in northern Syria, and "we also are at risk of being engulfed in a broader conflict."

The only exception to the US withdrawal from Syria is a group of perhaps 200 troops who will remain at a base called al-Tanf in southern Syria near the Jordanian border, along the strategically important Baghdad-to-Damascus highway. Those troops work with Syrian opposition forces unrelated to the Kurdish-led fighters in northern Syria.

Thousands of fighters from a Kurdish-led force have died since 2014 battling Islamic State in partnership with the United States, a strategy the Trump administration had continued after inheriting it from his predecessor, Barack Obama.

"After the Americans abandoned the region and gave the green light for the Turkish attack, we were forced to explore another option, which is talks with Damascus and Moscow to find a way out and thwart these Turkish attacks," senior Kurdish official Badran Jia Kurd said. Jia Kurd described the new arrangement with Assad's forces as a "preliminary military agreement," and said political aspects would be discussed later.

It remains to be seen how the Kurds will be treated now. Kurdish fighters began carving out autonomous rule in Syria's northeast early in its eight-year-old war, benefiting from diversions of Assad's military to fight elsewhere. Assad aims to restore his government's authority across all of the country.

Senior Kurdish politician Aldar Xelil called the pact with Damascus "an emergency measure." "The priority now is protecting the border's security from the Turkish danger."

Esper said the US withdrawal would be done carefully to protect the troops and to ensure no US equipment was left behind. He declined to say how long that might take.

EU countries have threatened to impose sanctions on Turkey over the assault. But at a meeting on Monday, they agreed not to impose an embargo. Member countries would instead consider their own restrictions on sales of weapons, a measure likely to be brushed off as trivial, as arms account for just 45 million euros ($51 million)out of more than 150 billion euros ($165 billion) in Turkey-EU trade.

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U.S. President Donald Trump announced last month the decision to withdraw 2,000 U.S. troops who have deployed to Syria in support of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia in the fight against Islamic State.

The coalition "has begun the process of our deliberate withdrawal from Syria. Out of concern for operational security, we will not discuss specific timelines, locations or troop movements," Col. Sean Ryan said.

Washington's Kurdish allies in northern Syria fear the withdrawal will open the way for Turkey to mount a long-threatened offensive against their area. Turkey views the dominant Syrian Kurdish groups as a national security threat.

U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton suggested on Tuesday that protecting the Kurds would be a precondition of the U.S. withdrawal, drawing a rebuke from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who called his comments "a serious mistake."

But U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Thursday the withdrawal would not be scuppered despite the Turkish threats.

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