Ankara considers the
YPG a terrorist group because it says it has links to Kurdish militants in Turkey.
Ankara has repeatedly requested the creation of a 20-mile (32 kilometers) safe zone in northern Syria and stressed that it wanted the
YPG cleared from this area.
The US has supplied the
YPG with its advanced Javelin and TOW anti-tank missile systems, the Turkish newspaper, Yeni Akit, cited sources as saying.
The fact that the
YPG is a powerless nonstate group without the US train-and-equip program and therefore was unsuccessful against Daesh was once again voiced by Trump on Wednesday.
Ankara views the
YPG as a "terrorist offshoot" of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged an insurgency against the Turkish state since 1984 and is considered a terror group by Ankara and its Western allies.
On Sunday, the Turkish military fired artillery shells at US-backed Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Unit (
YPG) positions in the east of the Euphrates.
BEIRUT/ANKARA: The Syrian Kurdish
YPG militia said Tuesday its military advisers would leave Syria's Manbij, a day after Turkey and the United States reached an agreement for administering the area that includes a longstanding Turkish demand that the
YPG withdraw.
Turkey launched operation "Olive Branch" against the
YPG on Saturday, supporting Syrian rebels with ground troops, air strikes and artillery fire.
The
YPG is the Kurdish Peoples' Protection Units militia in Syria, which Washington views as the most effective fighting force on the ground against the IS extremist group.
Aidan James, 27, from Liverpool traveled to the war-torn state in recent months in order to fight alongside the Kurdish
YPG in their battle against ISIS militants.
The footage was posted on the Facebook page of the People's Protection Units (
YPG), a mainly Kurdish militia group fighting ISIS.