Over the last three days, the United States reportedly deployed nearly 100 vehicles for military and logistical reinforcements to Syria’s Hasakah region, currently occupied by the PKK terrorist organization's Syrian offshoot, the YPG, according to Anadolu Agency (AA), citing local sources.
Reinforcement units moved into the rural Rumaylan, Shaddadid and Tell Beydar settlements of Hasakah, controlled by PKK/YPG terrorists, through the al-Walid border gate from Iraq between Jan. 6-8, reports said.
The convoy consisted of nearly 100 armored vehicles, fuel tankers and ammunition.
The PKK is designated a terrorist organization in the U.S., Türkiye and the European Union. Washington’s support for its Syrian affiliate, the YPG, has significantly strained bilateral relations with Ankara.
The terrorist group has used bases across Türkiye’s border in northern Iraq and northern Syria to plot and carry out attacks on the country, working to create a terrorist corridor along the borderline, threatening both Syrian locals and nearby Turkish residents.
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 Spring Peace against the PKK/YPG and Daesh 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. U.S. forces are currently present in many military bases and posts across a vast region occupied by the terrorists in the Hasakah, Raqqa and Deir el-Zour districts. Washington consistently sends reinforcements to its military units in PKK/YPG-controlled oil fields. At the same time, U.S. troops conduct regular patrols with the YPG.
The continued U.S. support, namely military training and truckloads of equipment, for the terrorist group has been under the pretext of fighting Daesh and has drawn the ire of its NATO ally Türkiye on numerous occasions. 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.
Just last month, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan slammed the U.S. for “turning a blind eye” to Türkiye’s concerns over its cooperation with the PKK/YPG despite repeated complaints, saying, “We will pull ourselves by our bootstraps.”
Erdoğan has been signaling a ground operation into northern Syria and Iraq for many months now and upped his threat following a Nov. 13 terrorist attack in Istanbul that left six dead and 81 injured. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin expressed "strong opposition” to Erdoğan’s plans of a ground offensive.
Erdoğan and other Turkish officials, dismissed any warnings, stressing that Türkiye was “committed to protecting its borders and will not seek anyone’s permission.”
Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, too, declared Türkiye was “issuing the necessary warnings to allied countries to cut off all ties with terrorist groups as soon as possible.”
Ankara has long emphasized cooperation and solidarity in the fight against terrorism will contribute to regional and global peace and security.
