Kurdish Forces Receive Weapons From US Arms Drop - Pentagon

Kurdish Forces Receive Weapons From US Arms Drop - Pentagon

Kurdish forces recovered some of the ammunition dropped by the US air forces in Syria on Sunday, US Department of Defense spokesperson Peter Cook said on Thursday.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US armed forces went ahead with the arms drop in Syria despite a warning by Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to Washington on Wednesday, saying Ankara remained flatly opposed to providing military aid to Syrian Kurds.

"My understanding is that it [airdrop] was specifically to Syrian Arab forces and that there were other groups, opposition groups, that may have also been able to recover some of the weaponry as well," Cook told reporters at the press briefing.

Asked whether the Kurdish forces also succeeded in recovering some of the weapons, Cook said, "Yes, yes. That's my understanding — Kurdish forces as well."

Turkey fought an insurrection within its territory by Kurdish forces starting in 1984 that cost 37,000 lives.

Turkey has been a member of the US-led North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) since 1955. However, the United States has begun to increase its aid to Kurdish forces fighting the Islamic State following the collapse of the Free Syrian Army over the past year.

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