ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — The United States has described reports of delivering massive quantities of weaponry and tanks to the Kurdish-led People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria as "erroneous."
"The United States has not provided tanks to any groups fighting Daesh [ISIS] in Syria," read a statement on Wednesday from the US Embassy in Turkey.
Several outlets including Turkey's Hurriyet reported on its Turkish service on Tuesday that the United States was under-reporting the arms shipments being sent into Syria, specifically referencing a night-time shipment over the Iraq-Syria Pish Khabur border crossing last Sunday.
"Turkish security units have detected that at least 10 tanks have been transported in covered large-box truck," Hurriyet reported, citing an unnamed security official. "This figure could be a bit more."
The US embassy stated "several outlets over the past few days have erroneously claimed that the United States has sent 'tanks' and 'hundreds of truckloads of weapons' into Syria to support the YPG."
Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency reported on Tuesday that 120 trucks carrying military equipment for the YPG were seen going from the Iraqi border and later arriving in Al-Hasakah province starting on June 21.
The vast majority of the trucks crossing the Iraqi/Syrian border," added the US statement "contain foodstuffs, medicine and other essential supplies" for the basic needs and stabilization of IDPs.
The YPG is one of the main components in the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance that is currently fighting ISIS in northern Syria, focused now on removing ISIS militants from their stronghold of Raqqa city.
The embassy statement described weapons given to Kurds as "limited, specific to task."
"We continue to provide full transparency to the government of Turkey as to what weapons are being delivered to the YPG," it added.
The spokesperson for the global coalition has repeatedly said that weapons will be "metered out" to partnered ground forces on an as-needed basis. The United States also has hundreds of ground forces supporting local partners in northern Syria.
"ISIS is using mobile and static car bombs, booby traps, and civilians to shield themselves," according to the coalition.
Updating Rudaw English on the two-month-long SDF-led offensive to capture Raqqa from ISIS, US Army Col. Ryan Dillon said about 45-50 percent of the city has been taken.
"The SDF are making consistent progress and gains against ISIS every day," Dillon told Rudaw English on Tuesday. "The control of the southern sector or Raqqa and the use of multi-story buildings will provide the SDF positions of advantage as they continue to advance against ISIS throughout remaining parts of the city.”
Diplomatically, Washington, D.C. and Ankara have been in a war of words.
The US Special Presidential Envoy to the Coalition Brett McGurk said during a July 27 think-tank event that Turkey was “looking the other way” as “thousands of tons of weapons” and foreign fighters entered Syria.
Turkey's Foreign Ministry characterized McGurk's remarks as "provocative" and were subsequently "protested" via a high-level démarche.
"Mr. McGurk was reminded of both the fact that the root causes enabling terrorist organizations to find foothold in Syria and Iraq could only be eradicated only if the deeds and actions of all relevant actors do not contradict one another," read a July 30 statement from the Turkish FM, re-iterating that Ankara shouldn't be supported "for whatever the reason."
The United States and Turkey are NATO and Coalition partners, but have often disagreed on who to support in northern Syria in the fight against ISIS. Ankara rejects US support of the YPG, which it ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), while Turkey continues to back the Free Syrian Army (FSA), even after the United States announced it had dropped its covert support earlier this month.
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