Turkish officials are so furious that American special forces troops accompanying Kurdish militants in Syria are wearing their partners’ insignia on their uniforms that Ankara’s top diplomat suggested Friday that USA soldiers add Islamic State flags to their sleeves next.
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“Army regulations say “don’t wear those patches”,” Warren said via teleconference to reporters at the Pentagon.
Turkey on Friday accused the United States of hypocrisy after USA commandos in Syria were pictured supporting a major ground offensive led by a Kurdish militia branded a terror group by Ankara. The Obama administration insists US troops are only working to advise and train rebel militias and the Iraqi army, and are not directly involved in the battle against ISIS. “If they don’t see these [groups] as the same as the People’s Protection Units, then this is double standards, hypocrisy”, he said at a news conference at a meeting on Least Developed Countries in the southern resort of Antalya.
Tensions between the USA and Turkey grew with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu saying Friday that it was “unacceptable” for US soldiers to wear an insignia of a terrorist organization as America is an ally of Turkey.
Turkish authorities accuse the groups of being linked to the banned PKK Kurdish militant group, who the Turks, along with the European Union and USA, regard as a terrorist organisation.
However, the YPG dominates in the umbrella group SDF, which also includes Arab and Christian fighters, and has notched victories against ISIS in northeastern Syria in the defense of the flashpoint border town of Kobane and in liberating Shaddadi, a key connector between Raqqa and Mosul, the main ISIS stronghold in Iraq.
While not disparaging the YPG, Warren said that Lt. Gen. MacFarland “wants to make it very clear”´that “our focus is to provide advice and assistance to the SDF – particularly the Syrian Arab component”. In the case of the YPG, “political sensitivities” argued against wearing them, he said.
Armed men in uniform, identified by Syrian Democratic forces as United States special operations forces, walk in the village of Fatisah in the northern Syrian province of Raqa on May 25, 2016. They said the troops were moving with Syrian rebel forces as they headed toward Raqqa, and that it’s possible they were closer to the front line of battle than they had been before.
SDF forces have pushed forward from Ain Issa, which lies less than 60 kilometers north of Raqqa city, into the surrounding farmland and small villages made up of low buildings.
The officials deny this is a change in the current US policy in which military personnel are not engaging in direct combat but can still be in harm’s way.
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“And we’re going to continue to support them with our assist and support operation”.
