The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Tuesday denied claims by Turkish media that they had received over 1,500 drones from Iran, saying their drones are locally made.
“[Turkey] is grappling with a crisis of fabricating false news. This includes promoting strange and false claims about an alleged deal between our forces and Iran to acquire 1,500 drones. These news are entirely false and blatantly fabricated by the Turkish media,” an SDF statement said, adding that they aim to create hostility and harm their forces and people.
According to Turkish media, an alleged meeting between Iranian and Syrian Kurd representatives took place in a market in Iraq, where they made a deal for Iran to send 2,000 drones to the SDF but Turkey blocked the deal.
The SDF has been the partnered ground force of the US-led international coalition in Syria against the Islamic State (ISIS). They explained that they have the experience to develop their own military capabilities, including drones.
“Our fighters, drawing on their extensive experience in combating the terrorist organization ISIS, have worked during the past period to develop their own military capabilities, including drones, which are the product of a purely self experience of the people of North and East Syria,” the statement stressed.
Kurdish forces in northern Syria are under intensified attacks by Turkey and Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA) militants, who have taken the strategic towns of Tal Rifaat and Manbij since late November, at the same time the Islamist-led Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was amid a blistering offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The clashes are especially intense near the crucial Tishreen Dam and Qere Qozaq bridge on the Euphrates River that leads to the symbolic Kurdish city of Kobane on the Turkish border.
Turkey considers the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the SDF, as the Syrian front for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and has threatened to carry out a military offensive against them.[1]