In a move that will likely anger Ankara, the United States allocated more funds to the terrorist group PKK/YPG in Syria.
The 2024 U.S. defense budget, approved by Congress, allocates $398 million for countering the Daesh terrorist group in Iraq and Syria, with $156 million for the PKK/YPG. The new spending package marks a $9 million decrease for Syria compared to the previous year, while funding for operations in Iraq fell to $242 million from $322 million.
The funds allocated for Syria are directed to a coalition, which is led by the PKK/YPG, the Pentagon's main partner in the country for counter-Daesh efforts, according to the bill.
Earlier Thursday, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the $886 billion defense spending bill, sending it to President Joe Biden's desk to be signed into law. In its almost 40-year terror campaign against Türkiye, the PKK – listed as a terror organization by Türkiye, the U.S. and the European Union – has been responsible for the deaths of more than 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.
The YPG is the Syrian affiliate of the PKK terror group. U.S. support for the YPG has long strained relations between Ankara and Washington.
The U.S. Army frequently provides military training and supplies to members of the PKK/YPG terrorist group in bases in Syria located in the Mount Abdulaziz region of Hassakeh, as well as in the eastern al-Omar oil field and Conoco area of Deir el-Zour province, all regions occupied by the terrorists, which Washington calls its “partner forces.” In August, it deployed more reinforcements to U.S. bases in the region as a convoy of nearly 50 trucks, tankers and armored trucks delivered fuel, weapons and ammunition to the U.S. forces stationed at the natural gas and al-Omer oil fields.
Since the start of the year, the U.S. Army sent reinforcements to bases and stations in Tal Beydar and Ash Shaddadi on Jan. 6, 8, 22 and 25, again on June 19 and 20, and July 11. In July, days after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called on Türkiye’s NATO allies to take a concrete stance against all terrorist groups, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a military spending bill that ensured continued funding for the YPG and authorized the continuation of joint operations from the end of 2023 through the entirety of 2024. The bill encompasses all Syrian groups, including the PKK/YPG. It would also include funding for non-PKK/YPG groups, including local Syrian military forces at a strategic U.S. military installation along the Syria-Jordan-Iraq border.
Since 2016, Ankara has been leading counteroffensives against the terrorist groups and striving to establish a 30-kilometer-deep (19-mile-deep) security line, for which Russia and the U.S. committed to providing support in October 2019. The same month, Türkiye launched its Operation Peace Spring against the PKK/YPG and Daesh, another terrorist group, in northern Syria, with Washington promising that the YPG would withdraw from the region.
The U.S. military then evacuated all its bases in the area, prioritizing stationing near oil fields. It, however, maintained its support, namely military training and truckloads of equipment, to the terrorist group under the guise of a joint fight against Daesh. It also conducts regular patrols with the PKK/YPG.
Thanks to U.S. help worth millions of dollars, the YPG has grown stronger in northeastern Syria, despite Washington’s promises to Türkiye that it would “consult and work closely” with Ankara against Daesh and the PKK.
Erdoğan said in October at a news conference that they have called on the “powers” maintaining relations with terrorist groups in the region “for years” to keep their military and intelligence elements away from terrorists “so that they would not be harmed in our operations.”
Before Erdoğan’s remarks, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan warned third parties, without naming them, to stay away from PKK/YPG facilities. “Our armed forces’ response to this terrorist attack will be extremely clear. They will once again regret committing such actions,” he warned.
