TURKEY said yesterday US arms to Syrian Kurdish militia were a “threat” to its security that threatened a “crisis” in Nato.
Washington announced on Tuesday night it would funnel heavy weapons to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the forces dominated by the Kurdish YPG fighting Isis independently of the Bashar al-Assad government in northern Syria.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (pictured) said the “fight against terrorism should not be led with another terror organisation.”
Earlier Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said weapons supplied to the YPG would end up in the hands of Turkey’s banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
“Every weapon that reaches their hands is a threat toward Turkey,” he declared.
Turkey has previously allowed Isis fighters to cross freely across its border with Syria, hoping that the death cult would help in Ankara’s fight against the Kurds.
In response to the Turkish bleating, the SDF announced the resumption of its offensive on the Isis stronghold of Raqqa, suspended 15 days earlier after Turkey bombed YPG positions in the north-east of the country, killing 20 mostly women guerillas.
Senior commander Ilham Ahmed said the US decision “legitimises the YPG and the Syrian Democratic Forces.”
The YPG’s parent Democratic Union Party (PYD) coleader Salih Muslim said it was “natural” that the US would arm the SDF.
“The Raqqa campaign is running in parallel with the international coalition against terrorism.”
The SDF yesterday claimed it had liberated the last districts of Tabqa on the Euphrates river west of Raqqa from Isis extremists, leaving them controlling just the hydroelectric dam north of the town.
And further west the Syrian army resumed its push east along the river with operations to encircle the Isisoccupied Jirah airbase south of Manbij.