BEIRUT,— The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) forces have lately received modern U.S. military equipment, weapons and ammunition, as part of their preparation for the Raqqa battle, Asharq Al Awsat reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights had first reported the U.S. military aid offered to Kurdish militias, quoting “reliable” sources.

“A large arms shipment sent by the International Coalition has arrived to Syrian Democratic Forces in the Raqqa countryside and the Hasaka province,” the Observatory said.

The group added that the weapons were transferred through the main Kurdish city of Qamishli in Syrian Kurdistan located at the Turkish border to the countryside of Raqqa province and Kobani Canton.

Kurdish commander Nawaf Khalil asserted to Asharq Al-Awsat that SDF militias, which mainly include militias from the Kurdish People’s Protection Units YPG, had received “in the last few days modern weapons sent by the U.S. and the International Coalition.”

The U.S. regards the Kurdish YPG as key ally against Islamic State and the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria and has provided them with air support as well as the military advisers. The Kurdish militia has seized swathes of Syria from IS.

Criticizing Ankara, Khalil, who is the spokesperson of Syria’s leading Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD, said this new development proves the International Coalition totally trusts the SDF, a relationship that Turkey was trying to damage.

The Kurdish commander added that the military development coincides with the presence of U.S. forces in the area in addition to U.S., German, French and British experts on the ground.

The SDF alliance is dominated by the powerful YPG and has a total of about 30,000 Kurdish fighters and about 5,000 Arab fighters.

The Raqqa battle aims to encircle the city by taking control over surrounding villages and access routes to weaken Islamic State IS and then liberate the city.

But Turkey-backed Free Syrian Army commander Ahmad Rahal told Asharq Al-Awsat on Saturday that the “U.S. military aid offered to Kurds was normal because Kurds are the strategic allies of the Americans since the Iraqi War.”

On August 24, Turkey has launched an incursion into northern Syria to stop the US-backed Kurdish YPG forces from connecting Syrian Kurdistan’s Kobani and Hasaka in the east with Afrin canton in the west. Turkish military operations are focused on Syrian Kurdish forces and not Islamic State, observers say.

Turkey fears the creation of an autonomous Kurdish region in Syrian Kurdistan — similar to the Kurdish region in Iraqi Kurdistan — would spur the separatist ambitions of Turkey’s own Kurds.

Syrian Kurds have established three autonomous zones, or Cantons of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin and a Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan (northern Syria) in 2013. On March 17, 2016 Syria’s Kurds declared a federal region in Syrian Kurdistan.

Copyright ©, respective author or news agency, aawsat.com | Ekurd.net

Comments

Comments