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YPG fighters with a US-made FGM-148 Javelin anti-tank missile launcher.
Pictures have emerged on social media which appear to show Syrian Kurds with an advanced US-produced anti-tank missile. A video allegedly shows a rocket blowing up an Islamic State truck. Washington has denied "providing the YPG with weapons." If the authenticity of the video, believed to have been filmed near the Syrian town of Shaddadi, is proven it would show that
Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) forces have been given an upgrade in technology. The footage shows an alleged truck belonging to Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) on the receiving end of
a direct hit from the missile.
The FGM-148 Javelin is a portable anti-tank missile, which was developed by the United States. It is able to lock on to potential targets using infrared imaging, which makes it a lot more effective than the TOW missile system, which militias fighting against IS had been using, as the TOW is heavier and requires a portable power supply. "Assuming he's not firing from the side of a mountain or on top of a compound, it's definitely a Javelin," Corporal Thomas Gray, a former Marine Javelin gunner who watched the video told the
Washington Post. However John Kirby, a State Department spokesman, said that he was unable to confirm whether the image was authentic and that
"nothing has changed about our policy of not providing the YPG with weapons."
The US has denied it is directly sending weapons to the Kurdish YPG forces in Syria, but has admitted it has handed over arms to the Syrian Democratic Forces, which is made up of both Kurds and Arabs.
Comment: The US is already setting up for the probable failure of the ceasefire without lifting a finger to do their part in ceasing hostilities, especially concerning Turkey.