US denies sending troops to Syria Kurdish fighters

WASHINGTON

Militant from the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) drive a tank in the al-Zohour nieighbourhood of northeastern Syrian city of Hasakeh on August 2, 2015. AFP Photo

The U.S. Central Command has strictly denied that U.S. troops are working on the ground with Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) forces in Syria, clarifying a recent statement from General Lloyd Austin, the head of Centcom. 

Centcom said in a written statement on Sept. 16 that the general had been referring to the “coordinating relationship that U.S. Special Operations Forces share with Syrian anti-ISIL forces.”

“Our special operations forces in northern Syria did not wait for the New Syrian Force program, or the train and equip program, to fully develop,” Austin had said earlier in the day. 

“At the very outset, they began to engage elements like the YPG and enable those elements. They are now making a difference on the battlefield,” he added. 

However, the Centcom statement stressed that “there are no U.S. military forces on the ground in Syria, nor have we conducted any U.S. military training of indigenous Syrian forces in Syria.”