Revenge of Erdogan: Turkey publishes the number and location of all US bases in Syria

Angered by American support for the Kurds in Syria, the Ankara government has decided to take revenge.

Turkey’s official news agency Anadolu has disclosed the locations of 10 US military bases in northern Syria, where Washington is carrying out an operation to combat the EI there and take its self-proclaimed capital Raqqa. The list published by the Anadolu news agency shows a North American presence from one end of the Syrian Kurdish region – a distance of about 320 kms.

The Anadolu agency even lists the number of US troops in each of the locations. Turkey has openly criticized the Trump Administration – and the Obama Administration before it – for supporting the Kurdish militia, the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), linked to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a terrorist movement Which seeks the independence of Southeast Turkey, with a Kurdish majority.

To camouflage support for the YPG, the US created the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces, which has a small Arab component, but the Turks were not fooled. Although Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan regularly expresses his anger against the US, it is unusual for a NATO country to reveal details of a US military deployment during active operations in a war zone. However, the US deployment to Syria is unusual because it is carried out against the government of the country where it is carried out, Syria, which constitutes a gross violation of International Law and Syria’s sovereignty. In addition, arms deliveries to the Kurdish militia violate Turkey’s national security, according to the Erdogan government.

According to the Anadolu agency, the US has two bases, Rameilan in northern Hasaka province and Jarab Ishaq near Kobani in Aleppo province. The first one is large enough for transport aircraft to land, while the second is used only by helicopters. The other eight smaller bases or outposts are often hidden behind warning signs of “forbidden area” and are used for military purposes, such as raiding the city of Raqqa, or for activities such as training or operational planning.

These bases contain pieces of artillery, multiple rocket launchers, mobile intelligence equipment and US armored vehicles. Anadolu even gives the number of Special Forces of the USA that are stationed in those bases. There are three US military bases in the province of Raqqa, says Anadolu, and the French Special Forces are located in two of them.

One of them serves as a communication hub for the coalition against the US-led EI. In Manbij, which the YPG militias took last August, the US now has two bases aimed at protecting the latter from the Turkish Army and from the Syrian Free Army militias operating under Turkish control. This publication will undoubtedly provoke the ire of the US Army, which is leading Kurdish operations against the EI. Colonel Joe Scroccam, the coalition’s director of public affairs, said “discussions of specific numbers and locations could endanger coalition forces and their partners.” In this regard, asked the newspaper The Daily Beast, not to reproduce the full content of the report of Anadolu. However, the agency Anadolu, which published the report in Turkish on Monday, did so the next day in English ensuring its international dissemination.