US-backed Kurds release another video of their forces striking a Turkish vehicle

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August 21, 2017 10:26 PM

Tensions between the two sides continue to escalate.

A YPG fires an anti-tank guided missile at a Turkish military vehicle.

US-backed Kurdish fighters released yet another video of their forces striking a Turkish vehicle in northwest Syria last week.

The video shows a Kurdish fighter firing what the Military Times reported was either a US BGM-71 TOW or Iranian Typhoon anti-tank guided missile system, and blowing up a Turkish tractor.

The fighter firing the missile system is part of the US-backed YPG faction called Jaish al Thuwar, and the video was uploaded to the Facebook page of Jabhat al-Akrad, a sub-faction of Jaish al Thuwar, the Military Times reported.

Rûxandina tirêksa çeteyên artêşa Tirk a dagirker

And the two sides have been engaged in regular skirmishes and shelling exchanges near the Syria and Turkish border for at least a couple months.

But Jabhat al-Akrad is supported by the Coalition, a senior fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, Kyle Orton, told Military Times.

While the Coalition is trying to distance themselves from the two YPG factions, Military Times reported, US support for the YPG and it's factions has increasingly angered Ankara since May.

As a result, Turkey has begun to move away from the west and towards Russia. Ankara and Moscow recently agreed to build a pipeline through Turkey, which allows Moscow to bypass Ukraine, and last week, Turkey signed an agreement with Russia for the $2.5 billion purchase of Moscow's advanced S-400 missile-defense system.

In an attempt to improve relations between the US and Turkey, Defense Secretary James Mattis plans to visit Turkey in late August.

Aaron Stein, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council, told Business Insider that Mattis will probably tell Ankara that US support for the YPG is merely "tactical" and that Washington DC "will try to mitigate [their] security concerns" by helping take out PKK leaders. But he will also probably ask Ankara to keep such support quiet so that the US doesn't lose YPG in the fight against ISIS.

It's the "most logical way forward" Stein said.

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