Pentagon says reviewing ‘adjustments’ to arms for Syrian Kurds

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Kurdish female fighters of the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPJ) at a military training camp. [Reuters]
Kurdish female fighters of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPJ) at a military training camp. [Reuters]
The Pentagon said on Monday it was reviewing “adjustments” in arms for the Syrian Kurdish forces that have angered Turkey, but it stopped short of halting weapons transfers, suggesting such decisions would be based on battlefield requirements.

Turkey said on Friday U.S. President Donald Trump told President Tayyip Erdogan he had issued instructions that weapons should not be provided to the Syrian Kurdish fighters, which Ankara views as threat.

“We are reviewing pending adjustments to the military support provided to our Kurdish partners in as much as the military requirements of our defeat-ISIS and stabilization efforts will allow to prevent ISIS from returning,” said Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon, referring to Islamic State, which U.S. and U.S.-backed forces are battling in Syria.

Earlier on Monday Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said Friday’s call between Trump and Erdogan was a turning point in strained ties between the two countries, but Washington must honor a pledge to stop providing weapons to the Syrian Kurds.

“The ‘We will not give weapons’ remark from a U.S. president for the first time is important, but it will lose value if it is not implemented. It would be deceiving the world,” Bozdag said.

The Syrian Kurdish YPG spearheads the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias fighting Islamic State with the help of a U.S.-led coalition.

A spokesperson for the coalition said on Sunday that it was looking at “adjustments” to the support it provides to the SDF, ranging from the number of advisers to training and artillery.

Weapons provided to Syrian YPG have been limited and mission specific, the spokesperson added.

Ankara has been infuriated by Washington’s support for the YPG militia, seen by Turkey as an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long insurgency in Turkey and is designated a terrorist group by Ankara, the United States and European Union.

 

REUTERS

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4 responses to “Pentagon says reviewing ‘adjustments’ to arms for Syrian Kurds”

  1. Rainbow Sponge Avatar
    Rainbow Sponge

    Finally, the SDF-ISIS war is coming to an end. ISIS will now focus on regime targets.

    https://twitter.com/hxhassan/status/935256039389384706

  2. The president reportedly reassured the Turkish president that the U.S. would cease military support to the Kurdish militias.

    However the Pentagon said on Monday it was reviewing “adjustments” in arms for the Syrian Kurdish forces that have angered Turkey, but it stopped short of halting weapons transfers, suggesting such decisions would be based on battlefield requirements.

    BEIRUT, LEBANON (3:25 P.M.) – The U.S. military was filmed on Monday delivering more than 100 Humvees to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/dcf261ba3409676fa5736fdcfbd3e42720a6b39e15df652ab36d591af112d04d.jpg This move by the U.S. military comes just two days after Donald Trump assured Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan that his nation was no longer aiding the Kurdish-led forces in Syria. (Al Masdar News)

    1. Hind Abyad Avatar

      Copying my twitter (Al Masdar News) Nieanimal not the brightest bulb
      to come out of the factory

  3. Hind Abyad Avatar

    “In May, Amnesty International obtained a US government audit that faulted the Army for failing to properly track more than $1 billion in equipment destined for the Iraqi army, Shiite militias and Kurdish peshmerga forces. The report follows a 2015 research report by Action on Armed Violence, a UK-based arms monitor, that found the Pentagon lacked records for more than half of the 1.45 million weapons handed out in Iraq and Afghanistan. And in the early 1990s, the CIA spent millions of dollars in Afghanistan to recover Stinger anti-aircraft missiles given to jihadist groups during the conflict against the Soviet Union, with limited success.”

    http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2017/11/us-faces-uphill-battle-arms-syria-kurds-trump.html#ixzz4znFSwZ9t

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