MESOP : ETHNIC CLEANSING BY PKK/PYD (YGP) ? US Repeats Warning to YPG About Displacing Rojava Residents / Reports of YPG forces forcing Arabs & Turkmens out of Syrian Kurdistan

Basnews – 17.06.2015 – WASHINGTON – The United States Department of Defence has said it’s “unacceptable” if Syrian Kurdish fighters push Arabs and Turkmens from their land amid the fight against Islamic State (IS). According to media reports thousands of Syrian Arabs and Turkmens began flowing into Turkey last week as Kurdish fighters conducted operations against IS militants in Tel Abyad, known as Gire Spi in Kurdish. It was a stronghold of IS, giving rise to claims that the fighters are ethnically cleansing local communities by forcing their displacement. “We certainly have seen these reports, and it is something that we are watching for,” said Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren. “Without question it is something that we’ll find unacceptable, if true.”

The Kurdish fighters, known as People’s Protection Units (YPG), have been backed by US-led coalition airstrikes that have contributed to the fleeing of civilians.According to the coalition unit leading anti-IS operations, at least 90 airstrikes have been conducted in the Raqqa, Hasakah and Kobani regions where Kurds are fighting the militants.

“As the Kurdish forces have moved west from Hasakah in northeastern Syria to Tel Abyad the airstrikes have moved with them,” Warren said, noting that it was a part of the coalition’s strategy to cut off IS supply lines to Raqqa, the self-declared IS capital.Warren also said the capture of Tel Abyad was a strategic gain in terms of closing an important route for the fighters although there are still several other routes that could be used to access Raqqah. White House spokesman Josh Earnest warned that cutting off the supply route could lead to a “major flow of foreign fighters, illicit goods and other illegal activity into northern Syria into Iraq” by the militant group.