Trump OKs plan to arm Kurds
Over the objections of Turkey, U.S. will supply militias fighting Islamic State in Syria.
WASHINGTON — President Trump has authorized a controversial Pentagon plan to supply weapons to Kurdish militias fighting Islamic State in Syria despite the strong objections of the Turkish government, which views the Kurdish fighters as terrorists.
White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Tuesday that Trump approved the plan to supply weapons “as necessary to ensure a clear victory” as Kurdish fighters and other militias close in on Raqqah, Islamic State’s largest and most important stronghold in Syria.
The Pentagon has long backed the Syrian Democratic Forces, a coalition of rebel groups that operates chiefly in northern Syria, with airstrikes, intelligence information and training. U.S. officials view the Kurdish militias, known as the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, as the most capable part of the alliance.
But Turkey, a major U.S. ally and member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, has angrily protested any American attempts to arm the YPG. The government in Ankara views the YPG as a terrorist force that seeks to create an independent Kurdish state in southern Turkey.
Bowing to those objections, the Obama administration declined to arm the Syrian Kurds. It instead supplied weapons only to Arab factions of the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF.
Spicer said the decision to reverse that policy reflected a recognition that the full Syrian coalition, including the Kurdish militias, is “the only force on the ground that can successfully seize Raqqah in the near future.”
“We are keenly aware of the security concerns of our coalition partner Turkey,” he added. “We want to reassure the people and government of Turkey that the U.S. is committed to preventing additional security risks and protecting our NATO ally.”
Wary of sectarian conflict, the U.S. has worked to recruit more Syrian Arab fighters into the coalition’s ground force as it advances toward predominantly Arab territories. “The U.S. continues to prioritize our support for Arab elements of the SDF,” Spicer said. “Raqqah and all liberated territory should return to the governance of local Syrian Arabs.”
A long-planned offensive to retake Raqqah from Islamic State comes as Iraqi ground forces, backed by the U.S.-led coalition, are seven months into an assault on Mosul, the militants’ self-declared capital in Iraq and the largest city that remains partially under Islamic State control.
Victory in either city would deal a considerable blow to Islamic State, which has steadily lost cities and towns over the last 18 months.