© AFP 2018/ MAHMOUD TAHARebel-fighters monitor the sky holding a man-portable air-defence system (MANPADS) in the Syrian village of Teir Maalah, on the northern outskirts of Homs, on April 20, 2016.
The Al-Masdar News media outlet reported Monday citing own sources that the US had provided the MANPADS to the Kurds earlier in the month under the agreement between Washington and the YPG. According to the news outlet, the MANPADS have been delivered to the Kurds in the northwestern part of Syria near the town of Afrin.
On Saturday, the Defense Post news website published an article, in which the spokesman of the US-led coalition fighting against the Daesh terrorist group said that the coalition was engaged in training of a 30,000-strong force on the territory within Syria currently controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia to maintain security in controlled area along the Syrian border.
The reports about the new US initiative have arisen against the backdrop of a statement made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday. According to Erdogan, the Turkish army may launch an operation in the northwestern Syrian regions of Manbij and Afrin controlled by the Kurdish militias within a week. The Turkish leader also expressed hope that Washington would back Ankara's efforts.
Comment: That's funny. The US is supposed to be collaborating with the YPG/SDF in order to fight ISIS. Yet ISIS has no air force.
This article is from the middle of January. A couple of weeks later, a Russian SU-25 was downed with a MANPAD, and Russians would like to know who gave the Syrian militants those weapons. Yet a week later we heard from the Pentagon that the US is not providing MANPADS to "any group" in Syria.
Check out this article from last year:
CIA's Plan B gives Syrian rebels MANPADs to fight Russia