Pentagon Expects to Cut Arms Shipments to Syrian Kurds

Kurdish YPG Confident Shipments Will Continue

Jason Ditz Posted onNovember 27, 2017CategoriesNewsTagsKurdistan, Pentagon, Syria

With the Kurdish YPG having taken all of the ISIS territory accessible to them, the US appears to be in a position to stop throwing massive amounts of arms at them, a move the Turkish government has been calling for throughout US involvement in Syria.

Pentagon officials don’t appear to be likely to cut off the shipments, however, and are presenting it rather as looking at possible “adjustments” in the types of arms being sent to the Kurdish fighters going forward.

Kurdish officials also say that will be the case, saying they’re confident that the US intends to keep sending them more weapons in the future, despite repeated promises to Turkey to not do so.

Turkey is expecting a war with the YPG pretty much immediately after the end of fighting against Islamist rebels, and has presented them as “terrorists” throughout the war. US efforts have focused on trying to convince Turkey to “focus of ISIS” in the past, but it’s not clear how they intend to distract Turkey from picking a fight with the YPG now that ISIS isn’t really a major power in northern Syria.