In first, US confirms giving armored SUVs to anti-ISIL Syrian Kurdish-Arab forces

The United States has provided an alliance of Syrian Kurdish and Arab fighters battling the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) with armored vehicles for the first time, a U.S. official and a spokesman for the anti-jihadist force stated on Jan. 31.

U.S. military spokesman Colonel John Dorrian said armored Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs) had been provided to the "Syrian Arab Coalition," a grouping of Arab factions within the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). 

The SDF, which is comprised of Syrian Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) fighters along with the Syrian Arab Coalition, has long been a key partner of the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIL in Syria, and Washington has previously supplied the coalition with light weaponry and has sent U.S. and other Western special forces as "advisers." 

The U.S.-led coalition has also backed the force with heavy air strikes targeting ISIL fighters.

U.S.'s support to the SDF has caused tension between Washington and its NATO ally Turkey, which considers the main component of the SDF, the YPG, which is the military wing of the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD), to be terrorist organizations due to its links with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), with which the Turkish army has been in armed conflict since the mid-1980s. 

Dorrian told AFP the decision was made "using existing authorities, in the interest of helping protect our partnered force from the [ISIL] improvised-explosive device threat." 

"The decision was made by military commanders, and has been in the works for some time," he added.

Dorrian's remarks came hours after SDF spokesperson Talal Sello said on Jan. 31 that they had received U.S. armored vehicles for the first time and a...