MESOP : PYD & US JOINT COMRADES IN ARMS – IF NOT YET – BUT TOMORROW ?

U.S. denies sending arms to PYD

10 Dec 2014 – MESOP – The State Department on Tuesday denied supplying U.S. arms to Kurdish forces affiliated with Syrian pro-Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) that are defending the besieged Kurdish town of Kobani in the north, insisting that any supplies are from the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq.

“The United States is not providing U.S. arms to the PYD,” a department official told the Anadolu Agency. Washington has carried out air drops to reinforce the party as it seeks to defend the key Syrian border town from the Islamic State (IS) advances.  “It became clear in October that the anti-IS forces defending Kobani were running dangerously low on supplies necessary to continue the fight against IS there on the ground. That is why President (Barack) Obama decided to resupply Kobani’s defenders by air with supplies provided by Kurdistan Regional Government authorities in Iraq,” the official said, distinguishing U.S. arms from those supplied by the Kurdish government in northern Iraq.