conducting patrols right along syria's border with turkey. >> according to u.s. officials, armored vehicles flying u.s. flags are being manned mostly by special operations forces, not to fight isis, though. they're there to really keep turkey and syrian kurds from fighting each other. live now at the pentagon to explain all this is cnn's barbara starr. barbara, what's going on here? u.s. boots on the ground, but not to fight isis? >> reporter: well, that's right. you know, pretty confusing on the face of it, but if you look behind the scenes, what the real bottom line is here is the u.s. wants to keep those kurdish fighters fighting isis. they want them to keep making progress towards the city of raqqah, isis' self-declared capital. it's a big u.s. military goal to get isis pushed out of that area. so, they've been diverted because there's these border skirmishes between turkey and some of the u.s.-backed kurdish rebels. to keep those skirmishes under control, to keep the focus on moving towards raqqah, the u.s.