{"id":33190,"date":"2017-05-12T06:58:12","date_gmt":"2017-05-12T06:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=33190"},"modified":"2017-05-12T06:58:12","modified_gmt":"2017-05-12T06:58:12","slug":"us-to-arm-syrian-kurds-despite-turkeys-ir","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/en.bornomalanews.com\/?p=33190","title":{"rendered":"US to arm Syrian Kurds despite Turkey\u2019s ir"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2017-05-10T101541Z_728671180_RC1D111C5670_RTRMADP_3_MIDEAST-CRISIS-SYRIA-YPG-690x450\"Turkey fears that advances by the YPG in northern Syria will inflame the three-decade insurgency, waged by the PKK, at home. Some 40,000 people, most of them Kurds, have died since the PKK first took up arms against the state in 1984<\/h2>\n
Despite fierce opposition from Nato ally Turkey, US President Donald Trump has approved supplying arms to Kurdish YPG fighters to support an operation to retake the Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State, US officials said on Tuesday.<\/div>\n
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Ankara views the Kurdish YPG militia, fighting within a larger US-backed coalition, as the Syrian extension of the Kurdish PKK militant group, which has fought an insurgency in southeastern Turkey since 1984.<\/p>\n

The Pentagon immediately sought to stress that it saw arming the Kurdish forces \u201cas necessary to ensure a clear victory\u201d in Raqqa, IS\u2019s de facto capital in Syria and a hub for planning the group\u2019s attacks against the West.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are keenly aware of the security concerns of our coalition partner Turkey,\u201d Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement as she travelled in Lithuania with defence secretary Jim Mattis.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to reassure the people and government of Turkey that the US is committed to preventing additional security risks and protecting our Nato ally,\u201d White said.<\/p>\n

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