US Army report confirms direct PKK, YPG links in Syria

As Turkey prepares toward the official visit of the United States Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Ankara on March 30 with the upcoming Raqqa operation and ongoing U.S.-led coalition efforts against Daesh in Mosul on the agenda, the Tactical Action Report (TAR) conducted by the US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) confirmed the affiliation between the PKK and the PYD/YPG terror groups. In the unclassified report, TRADOC described the PKK as "an armed separatist group" and further noted that the YPG had formed an alliance with the PKK in Syria.

As Ankara and Washington continue to negotiate the details of the Raqqa offensive, some U.S. generals expressed their intentions to arm the YPG with heavy weaponry and armored vehicles, in order to retake the city more swiftly. The intentions echoed policies adopted by the Obama administration, which also insisted on arming the PYD/YPG in Syria.

While Turkey's concerns about the proposed move has so far fell on deaf ears, Ankara has offered an alternative plan that would include Turkish Special Forces and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) troops, and exclude the YPG component of the U.S.-allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

On that note, the U.S. Army's Threat Action Report has revealed that the PKK is indeed affiliated with the PYD/YPG in Syria.

According to the report, the "YPB [Sinjar Resistance Units] allied primarily with the PKK and the YPG remained until the Peshmerga left Sinjar in the summer of 2014."

In addition, the report touched upon the efforts of Peshmerga forces against Daesh terrorists, adding that "During the Peshmergas' absence in Sinjar, the Yazidis developed closer alliances with the PKK and YPG."

Providing in-depth detail on the battle for the Sinjar region via a map, the U.S. Army report, date 2016, pointed out how the terrorist PKK worked jointly with the YPG and YBS.

Meanwhile, the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), the primary organization of the U.S. government for integrating and analyzing all intelligence pertaining to terrorism possessed or acquired by the U.S. government, previously had described the Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria as the Syrian affiliate of the terrorist PKK-KONRA-GEL (KGK), belying the former Obama administration's claims that they are separate organizations.

However, hours after the news of NCTC describing the PYD as the Syrian affiliate of the terrorist KGK broke, access to the webpage was blocked.

The former U.S. State Department Deputy Spokesperson Mark Toner, at the time said, the U.S. Department of State, "Follows a different procedure to recognize any organization as a foreign terrorist organization" while adding that he has, "No authority to talk on how other U.S. state institutions or a certain website defines the YPG [the PYD's armed wing]."

Other U.S. officials remained silent and refused to answer questions regarding the NCTC web page. Furthermore, the U.S. government had previously removed mentions of the PKK-affiliated group in the Counterterrorism Calendar's current 2016 version, without offering any official explanation.

Despite the previous U.S. administration's insistence on recognizing no direct links between the PKK and the YPG/PYD in Syria, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter had confirmed the link between YPG/PYD and the PKK during testimony before a Senate panel at the U.S. Congress in April 2016.

Admitting the link between the PKK and PYD, Carter acknowledged that the PKK is a designated terror group by the U.S., Turkey and the EU, but denied Ankara was upset due to the U.S.'s air and equipment support to the militant group's offshoot in Syria.