The Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) have ceased combat operations in Syria following the death of YPG officials, according to sources who spoke with American Military News. In recent months, Turkey has all but refocused their attacks from the Islamic State to the YPG, sending a series of air strikes to bomb frontline units as they work with coalition forces to combat ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
ISTANBUL – A convoy of Turkish military vehicles has relocated to a base near the Syrian border as tensions with U.S.-backed Kurdish militants escalate.
Footage shot Friday night shows armored vehicles and personnel carriers on the road. Private Ihlas news agency reports they were moved to Sanliurfa province from Kilis in the west with the completion of Turkey's cross-border operation in Syria and may be used against Syrian Kurdish militants or YPG "if needed."
Turkey has been shelling both Kurdish fighters of the Popular Protection Units (YPG) and so-called Islamic State inside northern Syria.
The YPG are widely regarded as one of the most effective forces in the fight against IS and attacks on them have prompted calls from the UN, US and EU for Turkey to show restraint.
Ankara says it is retaliating against what it calls provocations by the YPG but it has long warned against the group making territorial advances in northern Syria near its border.
Kurds accuse Turkey of using the US-led coalition against IS as a cover to attack the PKK in both Turkey and Iraq, and now against the YPG in northern Syria. The Kurds say Turkey's bombardment of their positions is helping IS to attack Kurdish-held frontline areas in Syria and Iraq. Turkish bombardments have also angered Iraqi Kurds, since IS has increased its attacks against Iraqi Kurdish forces in the Makhmur area near the city of Mosul.
"Turkey shamelessly and openly backs IS and al-Qaeda terrorists against Kurdish freedom fighters," Sadi Pria, a top Iraqi Kurdish official in Irbil