Some 700 members of the terrorist group PKK/YPG were transferred to a base near the River Euphrates in Syria by U.S. forces, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported on Monday. The base is near an area where pro-Iranian militias are deployed and the move comes amid escalating tensions in the Middle East between Israel and Iran.
Local sources told AA that terrorists were moved to bases near the Koniko and al-Omar oil fields in Deir Az-Zour province from Syria’s Hassakeh, which is controlled by the terrorist group. They were members of the Sanadid forces, a predominantly Arab group serving under the same coalition of PKK/YPG.
U.S. forces also dispatched a convoy of 70 vehicles carrying munitions to the same bases. On Sunday, four U.S. helicopters flying in from Iraq carried personnel to Rumeylan base in Hassakeh.
The U.S. has evacuated its bases in the region and settled around the oil fields after Türkiye's Operation Peace Spring began in October 2019 to prevent the formation of a terror corridor targeting Türkiye. U.S. forces, which continue to support the PKK/YPG, are present in many bases and military points in the regions occupied by the group. Washington frequently sends reinforcements to its military bases and points in the oil fields controlled by PKK/YPG terrorists.
U.S. support for PKK's Syria wing, YPG, has long strained relations between Ankara and Washington.
The U.S. Army frequently provides military training and supplies to members of the terrorist group in bases in Syria located in the Mount Abdulaziz region of Hassakeh, as well as in al-Omar and Koniko, all regions occupied by the terrorists, which Washington calls its “partner forces.” Recently, it deployed more reinforcements to U.S. bases in the region as a convoy of nearly 50 trucks, tankers and armored trucks delivered fuel, weapons and ammunition to the U.S. forces stationed at the natural gas and al-Omer oil fields.
Since early 2023, the U.S. Army sent reinforcements to bases and stations in Tal Beydar and Ash Shaddadi on Jan. 6, 8, 22 and 25, and again on June 19 and 20 and July 11. Last July, days after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called on Türkiye’s NATO allies to take a concrete stance against all terrorist groups, the U.S. House of Representatives approved a military spending bill that ensured continued funding for the YPG and authorized the continuation of joint operations from the end of 2023 through the entirety of 2024. The bill encompasses all Syrian groups, including the PKK/YPG. It would also include funding for non-PKK/YPG groups, including local Syrian military forces at a strategic U.S. military installation along the Syria-Jordan-Iraq border.
Thanks to U.S. help worth millions of dollars, the PKK/YPG has grown stronger in northeastern Syria, despite Washington’s promises to Türkiye that it would “consult and work closely” with Ankara against Daesh and the PKK.
