The People’s Protection Units (YPG) confirmed that soldiers seen wearing the militia’s insignia patches in pictures taken by an AFP news agency photographer were USA special forces fighting alongside guerillas battling Islamic State (Isis).
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Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called the USA “two-faced” and said that us forces wearing the YPG patch was “unacceptable” Friday.
Cook refused to say where US soldiers were at this time, but senior military officials said the troops were moving with Syrian rebel forces as they headed toward Raqqa.
“We advise them (US troops) to wear badges of Daesh (IS) or (Al-Qaeda affiliate) Al-Nusra when they go to other parts of Syria and badges of Boko Haram when they go to Africa”, Cavusoglu said with angry sarcasm.
“Wearing an insignia of a terrorist organisation by United States soldiers, who are our ally and are assertive about fighting against terrorism, is unacceptable”, he said.
“They are not at the front line”, but “they have to be in a position to be able to provide the kind of advice needed” to the rebel troops, Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook said at a contentious news conference.
The U.S.is backing twin assaults against IS- one for Raqqa province, and one for the Iraqi city of Fallujah across the border.
Turkey is an ally in the U.S.-led coalition against IS but the two countries are at odds over the involvement of Kurdish fighters in northern Syria in the battle against the group. “What I will say is that special operations forces when they operate in certain areas do what they can to, if you will, blend in with the community to enhance their own protection, their own security”.
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.
“Our special operations forces in the past have, yes, worn insignias and other identifying marks with their partner forces”, Cook told reporters on Thursday.
But Fatisah had just been cleared of ISIS fighters in the previous 24 hours, so it was about as close to the front lines as the Americans could be without actually being in the thick of fighting.
Armed men in uniform identified by Syrian Democratic forces as U.S. special operations forces ride in the back of a pickup truck.
You know our policy with regard to our special operations forces, that we’re not going to talk very much about their activities, where they are and what they’re doing for obvious reasons.
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On Thursday, Cook said the troops in the photograph, though authorized to defend themselves, are not on the front line.
