Turkey steps up training of Free Syrian Army which fought Kurdish YPG

Turkey steps up training of Free Syrian Army which fought Kurdish YPG

Posted on May 21, 2017



ISTANBUL,— Turkey has stepped up training of the Free Syrian Army, which has fought alongside Turkish forces against the U.S.-backed Syrian Kurdish forces and Islamic State group IS, official media said Saturday.

Turkey has vowed to battle Kurdish militants in Syrian Kurdistan and Iraqi Kurdistan if pushed. Anadolu news agency reported that Turkish special forces are training larger Free Syrian Army groups in using weapons including mortars, rocket launchers and machine guns, in terrain similar to where the fighters operate.

The agency quoted an unidentified military official saying, “It’s no longer the old FSA in the field but a new FSA being born. These FSA members in training will show their difference in possible future operations.”

Anadolu said the training was stepped up after Turkey declared in March an end to the first phase of its military operation with FSA against IS and Kurdish militants in Syrian Kurdistan, the Kurdish region in northern Syria.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said the country would retaliate if the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, pose a security threat and a new cross-border operation could be launched.

Turkey deems the group in Syria a terror organization and an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) based in Iraqi Kurdistan, which has waged a three-decade-long insurgency against the state in Turkey’s Kurdish southeast, Turkish Kurdistan.

The U.S. considers the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD and its powerful military wing YPG a distinct entity from the PKK and a key ally in Syria. Syrian Kurdish forces, armed by the U.S., are the main fighting power in the campaign to liberate Raqqa, the de facto capital of IS.

The Kurdish YPG militia, which has 60,000 fighters, has seized swathes of Syria from IS [Daesh].

Quoting security sources, Anadolu on Friday reported preparations by the Turkish military along its southern border to respond to potential attacks by the YPG and PKK.

The agency said a number of ground units, armored military vehicles and munitions have been dispatched to the border for cross-border operation scenarios. Logistical preparations including tents and containers are at the border and bases for air operations have been readied.

Anadolu said with “alarm levels raised,” military units and intelligence are monitoring Kurdish-controlled Afrin, Tel Abyad and Qamishli in northern Syria and the Iraqi border.

In April 2017, Turkey has launched airstrikes against the YPG, killing 28 fighters and media activists. The U.S. had criticized the airstrikes against Kurdish militants in Syrian Kurdistan and northern Iraq.

Syrian Kurdistan’s ruling PYD has established three autonomous zones, or Cantons of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin and a Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan in 2013. On March 17, 2016 Syria’s Kurds declared a federal region in Syrian Kurdistan.

http://ekurd.net/turkey-training-syrian-army-2017-05-21