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US continues to provide military aid' to PKK/PYD

Anadolu Agency WORLD
Published June 16,2017
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The U.S. has continued its military support for PKK/PYD terrorist group in Syria as 50 more trucks were seen arriving in northeastern Syria early Friday, according to Anadolu Agency's correspondent on the ground.

The trucks allegedly carried armored vehicles and ammunition from Iraqi-Syrian border and reached Al-Hasakah city.

The number of shipments made by U.S. to the terrorist elements increased to 130 trucks in the last 10 days. On June 5, 60 trucks and on Monday 20 trucks were delivered to PKK/PYD.

On 9 May, the Pentagon had announced that U.S. President Donald Trump had approved arming "Kurdish elements" of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) ahead of an attempt to drive Daesh from Raqqah, the last Syrian city held by the terror group.

Since then, the U.S. has shipped a total of 348 trucks of military aid to the organization, including Friday's shipment.

According to the document Anadolu Agency obtained from Pentagon, the list of weapons which are to be given to PKK/PYD among other groups included 12,000 Kalashnikov rifles, 6,000 machine guns, 3,500 heavy machine guns, 3,000 American RPG-7, 1,000 American AT-4 or Russian made SPG-9 anti-tank weapon.

The list also included 235 howitzers of different calibers, 100 sniper rifles, 450 PV-7 night vision glasses and 150 infrared laser illuminators.

Turkish government considers the PYD/YPG to be the Syrian offshoot of the PKK, a designated terrorist organization by Turkey and the U.S.

However, the U.S. does not view the PKK/PYD a terrorist group, instead it relies on the group extensively in the battle against Daesh in northern Syria. The YPG-backed Syrian Democratic Forces have been Washington's principal partner in the anti-Daesh fight.