By Mohamad Misto, Levent Tok and Adham Kako
ANKARA (AA) - The U.S. has dispatched hundreds of more trucks from Iraq to Syria in a week to provide military and logistic support to the region occupied by the YPG/PKK terror group.
The U.S. forces, providing support for the YPG/PKK terrorists under the pretext of fight against Daesh terror group since 2015, sent 300 more trucks through the Semelka gate at the Iraq-Syria border, a reliable local source told Anadolu Agency on Friday.
The trucks carried resistant ready-mixed concrete blocks named TWall -- which are used in base building --, off-road vehicles, generators, many fuel tankers and box bodies, according to the source, who asked not to be named due to security concerns.
The source added that the box bodies included light and heavy arms, ammunition, signalization and radar equipment.
The convoys entering the region during the week distributed the equipment to various U.S. bases in the region, the source said.
On Sept. 21, Washington also dispatched 200 truckloads of construction equipment, box bodies, prefabricated houses and tanker trucks to the region.
On Sept. 9, it delivered another 55 trucks of four-wheel drive vehicles, excavators and box bodies to Ayn Isa and Shaddadi regions occupied by the terror group, while it also dispatched another 60 trucks to the regions in the north and northeastern of Syria, respectively, on Sept. 4.
- 18 US military bases in Syria
The U.S. currently has around 2,000 personnel in 18 bases and military locations in Syria.
Despite President Donald Trump’s remarks last year -- which said he wanted to withdraw his country’s military personnel in Syria --, Washington still continue its presence in the country.
In a July 26 speech, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said: “They are giving tens of thousands of truckloads of weapons and ammunition to the PKK/YPG for free. It gives them to whom? The terror group PKK and its supporters.
“Who gives [the support]? Those who appears to be our strategic ally gives [them].”
Erdogan also pointed out that the YPG and the PKK are the same terrorist organization, despite the U.S. efforts to separate them.
The U.S. supports the YPG/PKK under the name of SDF, which is considered by Ankara as the Syrian offshoot of the PKK terror group.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and the EU -- has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women and children. The YPG is its Syrian branch.
Ankara has long criticized the U.S. for working with the terrorist PYD/YPG to fight Daesh in Syria, saying that using one terror group to fight another makes no sense.
*With contributions and writing by Sena Guler