Recently published photos of USA special operations forces in Syria, taken by an Agence France Press photographer, showed one of the US soldiers wearing a “YPJ” patch – which stands for Yekîneyên Parastina Jin, or the Kurdish Women’s Defense Units.
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RT: Turkey considers the YPG, People’s Protection Units, a terrorist group, but USA forces are wearing the badges.
The US military has said American special ops troops were not authorised to wear the patches of Kurdish forces while advising them in Syria, after Turkish leaders protested.
The Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu vented his country’s anger: “Our suggestion to them is that they should also wear Daesh, al-Nusra and Al-Qaeda insignias during their operations in other regions of Syria”.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday accused the United States of lacking honesty for supporting Kurdish fighters in Syria that Ankara considers terrorists.
They don’t prevent me from taking pictures.
“Those who say: “We will continue to support the YPG, it is not the PKK”… you are on the wrong side”.
Given Turkey’s sensitivities about the US reliance on Kurdish forces in the battle against Islamic State in Syria, the personnel were told to remove the patches.
“With respect to Turkey’s comments about these photos we’ve been very clear… about our belief that the YPG is not connected to the PKK”, Toner said.
However the State Department played down the spat, insisting that Washington and Ankara remain close partners in the broader fight against the Islamic State, despite disagreements about the role of the YPG.
“The PKK, the PYD, the YPG, Daesh (Islamic State), there is no difference”.
Warren said Friday that the American troops in Syria are primarily there to provide advice and assistance to Syrian Arab fighters who’ve vowed to fight the Islamic State group under the umbrella group called Syrian Democratic Forces.
The photographer said the soldiers identified as United States special forces refused to talk to journalists but were less wary than usual around the media.
Warren indicated that the USA forces participating in the operation to capture a stretch of desert territory north of Raqqa will no longer attach the badges to their uniforms, saying that “corrective action” had been taken.
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Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Stephen O’Brien told the Security Council, via video-link from Geneva, that 592,700 people are living under siege in Syria with the vast majority of them, some 452,700, besieged by government forces. “Even though relations between Obama and Erdogan are not good, Turkey will continue to attach a great deal of important with its relationship with US because that is the relationship the President values above all else”. They are there to advise and assist those forces with command, logistical and air support needs, as far as he knows no USA forces have engaged in combat firefights.
