A week after one of the top U.S. generals paid a controversial visit to northern Syria “to meet with (American) commanders and troops,” another senior U.S. security official, Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla, the commander of the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), visited northeast Syria and met with U.S. forces and PKK leaders on Thursday.
In a written statement released on Saturday, CENTCOM said Kurilla visited U.S. forces and PKK fighters in the “daily fight against ISIS At Large,” using an alternative acronym for the Daesh terrorist group. “This was his sixth visit to Syria in the last 11 months,” the statement said.
Earlier on March 4, U.S. Army Gen. Mark Milley, chairperson of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made an unannounced visit to a U.S. base in the area dominated by the YPG, a Syrian wing of the designated terrorist group PKK. Milley’s visit stirred up a crisis between Türkiye and its NATO ally, the U.S., as the PKK and its associated elements in the region have claimed responsibility for thousands of civilian deaths in Türkiye. The crisis grew so large that Ankara summoned U.S. Ambassador to Ankara Jeff Flake over the controversial visit.
In the latest statement, CENTCOM reiterated once again the U.S. approach toward the PKK/YPG as it defined the terrorist group as “the U.S. partner force” in the region, where they claim to cooperatively conduct “daily missions” against Daesh.
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