Top general denies report on retired US general’s involvement in Turkey’s coup attempt

“It’s an absurd report that General Campbell would be involved with something like that. He’s a personal friend and I happen to know that right now he’s doing a lot of things, and one of them is not planning a coup inside of Turkey. I really don’t know where that report could have come from,” Dunford said on July 26, speaking at a press meeting with U.S. Defense Minister Ashton Carter.

The report in daily Yeni Şafak claimed that Gen. John Campbell, who retired from the U.S.-led military coalition in Afghanistan in May, planned the failed coup attempt in Turkey. It also stated that Campbell provided a huge amount of cash flow from the UBA Bank in Nigeria via the CIA in order to support the coup.

Campbell himself dismissed Yeni Şafak’s allegations on July 25, describing them as “absolutely ridiculous.”

“It doesn’t even warrant a response. It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Campbell told The Wall Street Journal.

Meanwhile, Gen. Dunford also added that his Turkish counterpart Gen. Hulusi Akar, who was taken hostage and rescued later during the coup attempt, had called him twice in the past week.

“My counterpart has reached out to me twice in the past week to assure me that they were still committed to the counter-ISIL campaign and to our broader partnership.  Operations have in almost all manners returned to normal in terms of the operations we’re conducting from Turkey,” Dunford said.