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US arming of Kurds infuriates Turkey

by Our Foreign Desk

TURKISH Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu lashed out at his US allies yesterday, complaining that arms supplies to Syrian Kurds could wind up in the hands of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and be used against his country’s armed forces.

He also warned Russia not to support the YPG (People’s Protection Units) Kurdish militia group, saying: “No-one can guarantee that arms given to the PYD (Democratic Union Party) today won’t tomorrow fall in the hands of the PKK and be used against Turkey.

“Turkey cannot accept any kind of co-operation with terror organisations that have declared war against Turkey,” insisted Mr Davutoglu.

A Foreign Ministry official said in Ankara that Turkey had summoned the US and Russian ambassadors separately on Tuesday to convey the government’s concerns.

The US military said the previous day that cargo planes had dropped small-arms ammunition to Arab groups fighting the Islamic State group (Isis) in northern Syria.

In the northern Syrian city of Kobane, Kurdish official Mustafa Bali added that Washington had provided 120 tons of weapons and ammunition to the main YPG militia fighting Isis in that area.

US officials have been trying to persuade the YPG forces to turn their attention to the de facto Isis capital of Raqqa, which is 60 miles south of the Tal Abyad border town liberated by YPG in June.

But this Arab town is an unlikely target for the Kurdish fighters, whose main priority is to link Kobane with the Kurdish enclave of Afrin, north-west of the city of Aleppo.

Ankara, for its part, is opposed to any Kurdish advance west of the River Euphrates.

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