The US is now equipping Kurdish fighters of the Syrian Democratic Forces with heavy machine guns, small arms and ammunition to battle Islamic State fighters near their stronghold of Raqqa, Syria.Pentagon spokesman Eric Pahon told RT that this move represents the "early steps to prepare for the eventual liberation of Raqqa," which the Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) has declared the capital of its self-proclaimed caliphate.US-ally Turkey has long opposed the arming Kurdish forces, which it considers to be outgrowths of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), a designated terrorist group in both Turkey and the US.Amid reports of US delivering arms to the Kurdish-controlled northern Syrian city of Hasakah in recent weeks, Turkish President Recep Erdogan called the US decision "a mistake" and urged US authorities to "reverse it immediately.
The U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) says they will counter Iraq’s mostly Iran-backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMU) militants if the latter enters areas under SDF control, insisting that SDF will never accept the presence of Iran and SDF will never under any circumstances act as a bridge between PMU and the Syria's Assad regime.