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Turkey-US ties could fray further as Pentagon mulls arming YPG

Already rocky relations between Turkey and the United States are likely to worsen if the White House approves an expected Pentagon request to provide more weapons to the People's Protection Units.
A Kurdish fighter from the People's Protection Units (YPG) rides on a pick-up truck mounted with an anti-aircraft weapon in the Ghwairan neighborhood of Hasaka, Syria, August 22, 2016. The Arabic on the wall reads, "Bashar al-Assad is the glory and the pride of the nation." REUTERS/Rodi Said - RTX2MKNY

Turkey’s fraught relations with the United States over the US alliance with the People’s Protection Units (YPG) in the war against the Islamic State (IS) in Syria have taken another turn for the worse as the Pentagon considers providing more arms to the Syrian Kurdish militia while continuing to spurn Turkish demands for armed drones.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan aired his displeasure in remarks at an Istanbul conference, saying, “You ask the United States for an unmanned aerial vehicle. … The answer you get is that the Congress didn’t approve this. This is the situation that we are constantly faced with. Hey, aren’t we supposed to be strategic allies?”

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