US Intensifies Weapons Supply to Syrian Kurds - Reports

ANKARA (Sputnik) — The United States has boosted supplies of weaponry to the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) that is considered to be an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) labeled as terrorist by Ankara, Turkish media reported on Wednesday, citing its sources.

On December 24, the US ambassador to Turkey said the United States did not provide direct military support to the PYD. However, according to the Anadolu news agency, in the last two weeks alone the US weaponry was delivered three times to the northeastern Syrian province of Hasakah.

The agency claims that on the day the ambassador made his statement, a plane with US weapons on board landed at the Rumeilan airport. The weapons then were reloaded into US Army helicopters and delivered to other regions of the country, Anadolu explained.

According to the agency’s sources, the latest major weapons delivery to the northern regions of Syria took place late on Tuesday. Moreover, dozens of heavy trucks have left Erbil in northern Iraq to reach regions of Syria controlled by the Kurdish self-defense forces, Anadolu added.

On August 24, Turkish forces, backed by US-led coalition aircraft, began a military operation dubbed the Euphrates Shield to clear the Syrian border town of Jarabulus and the surrounding area of the Islamic State (ISIL or Daesh) terrorist group. As Jarabulus was retaken, the offensive moved southwest toward Al Bab.

The operation has been widely criticized both by the Syrian Kurds and Damascus, who have accused Ankara of violating Syria's territorial integrity. In the northern regions of Syria Turkish forces repeatedly engage in fighting with the Kurdish self-defense units they consider to be tied with the PKK.