THE US will take back the arms it has given Kurdish separatists once they take the Syrian Isis stronghold of Raqqa, according to a Turkish Defence Ministry statement yesterday.

It said Defence Minister Fikri Isik had received the assurances in a letter from his US counterpart James Mattis.

It said Mr Mattis pledged to provide Ankara with a full list of arms supplied to the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), dominated by the Kurdish YPG — a sister organisation to Turkey’s banned PKK.