US Embassy categorically denies ‘terror supporter’ claims

ANKARA

Militants from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) sit in the back of a vehicle in the al-Zohour nieighbourhood of northeastern Syrian city of Hasakeh on August 2, 2015, a week after Syrian troops and Kurdish fighters ousted the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) from Hasakeh. AFP Photo

The U.S. Embassy in Ankara has categorically denied reports by pro-government media which suggested the United States has been purposefully disrupting the performance of U.S.-trained moderate Syrian fighters and covertly supporting the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the military arm of the Syrian Democratic Union Party (PYD), in northern Syria.

“@yenisafak [daily Yeni Şafak newspaper] and other media outlets have reported false claims about U.S. and coalition actions in northern #Syria. These reports’ insinuations that the U.S. is ‘sending terrorists, trained under the guise of the anti-ISIL [Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant] fight, into Turkey’ are false,” the U.S. Embassy said in messages posted to its official Twitter account on Sept. 14.

“Here is the truth: The U.S. and Turkey are partners, fighting shoulder-to-shoulder against #Daesh [ISIL]. Claims to the contrary fly in the face of Turkey’s own actions as a full member of the coalition,” the embassy said in strongly-worded messages.

Citing anonymous Syrian dissidents as a source, Yeni Şafak recently reported the United States has been willingly stalling off Syrian opposition groups and delaying action against ISIL.

By doing so, the United States aimed to strengthen the position of the YPG, the daily said. 

Ankara is concerned the PYD and its allies have aims to unite Kurdish cantons in northern Syria and fear those ambitions will stoke separatist sentiment among its own Kurds.