U.S. To Halt Providing Weapons Or Ammunition To The Ypg, Amid Turkey's Concerns

U.s. announced it would not provide People's Protection Units (YPG) any ammunition or weapons anymore, amid Turkey's ongoing effort to halt the transition to the military unit of the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria.

"We were told by a senior defense official on Friday that the YPG would not be getting any ammunition or weapons. And if that were to happen, you'd work something out with Turkey. Where are you on that? Presumably, the Kurds would like -- the YPG would like weapons and ammunition. So where does that stand?

"As of now, we are not providing weapons or ammunition to the YPG. The weapons that we have provided thus far, with the ammunition that we have provided in our one airdrop that executed, was for the Syrian-Arab coalition. As of now, future resupplies will also go to Arab -- vetted Syrian opposition members" stated the spokesman for the U.S. military operation against the Islamic State (IS), Colonel Steve Warren, having joined a press conference in Pentagon.

While another reporter reminded Turkey's ongoing concerns raised before, "We are in continuous discussions with the Turks. I'm not going to get into the details about diplomatic discussions. Obviously, the Turks have concerns. You know, they are our partners and allies. We are going to address those concerns. We are going to work with them to achieve our common goal, which is to defeat IS" Spokesperson Warren added.

Having stressed Turkey has showed "tremendous work" by providing close air support to vetted Syrian opposition forces in direct contact with IS, Colonel Warren said, "These are the very forces that we exfiltrated out of Syria months ago, trained in Turkey, infiltrated back in".

"I am highlighting that because we have heard so much discussion of how this was a failed program that we have discontinued. But the results of that program are out there on the battlefield right now" urged Warren. - York