WASHINGTON
The State Department on Tuesday denied supplying U.S. arms to Kurdish militants defending the besieged town of Kobani, insisting that any supplies are from the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq.
“The United States is not providing U.S. arms to the PYD,” a department official told the Anadolu Agency referring to the Kurdish Democratic Union Party.
Turkey views the party as a branch of the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party, or PKK, and has condemned arming the Democratic Union Party’s militant wing, which is known as the People’s Protection Units.
Washington, however, has carried out air drops to reinforce the group as it seeks to defend the key Syrian border town from ISIL advances.
“It became clear in October that the anti-ISIL forces defending Kobani were running dangerously low on supplies necessary to continue the fight against ISIL there on the ground. That is why President (Barack) Obama decided to resupply Kobani's defenders by air with supplies provided by Kurdistan Regional Government authorities in Iraq,” the official said, distinguishing U.S. arms from those supplied by the Kurdish government in northern Iraq.
The official added that the U.S. continues to label the PKK as a foreign terrorist organization.
www.aa.com.tr/en
