WASHINGTON \u2014 Speaking on a panel at the Aspen Security Forum, Gen. Raymond Thomas, the commander of US Special Operations Command (SOCOM), said the U.S. asked the People\u2019s Protection Unit, or YPG, to re-brand because of its alleged linkages to the Kurdistan Worker\u2019s Party (PKK), an internationally designated terrorist group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe literally replied back to them and said you got to change your brand,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The SOCOM commander was responding to questions from Catherine Herridge, chief intelligence correspondent for Fox News, about how the U.S. military finds partner forces in Iraq and Syria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. Kurdish allies in the fight against ISIS are currently called the Syrian Democratic Forces, but they were \u201cformerly called the YPG,\u201d Thomas said during the interview.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey came about that name because at one point in time, and I\u2019ve dealt with them directly \u2026 they were formerly called the YPG, who the Turks would say equated to the PKK, you\u2019re dealing with a terrorist enemy of mine,\u201d Thomas said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The YPG changed their name to the SDF in about a day, Thomas explained, saying that it was \u201ca stroke of brilliance\u201d to include \u201cdemocracy\u201d in their title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SOCOM came in touch with the organization a couple years ago after the group was facing annihilation from ISIS in Kobane, Thomas explained. SOCOM at that time provided the embattled group in Kobane with \u201ckinetic capabilities,\u201d which helped the group survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
SOCOM was interested in the group militarily, but the organization only numbered a couple thousand Kurdish fighters, the SOCOM commander said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The group \u201chas got to be more representative than that,\u201d Thomas said he told them, asking the group \u201care there Arabs who want to join your coalition here?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The SDF now number nearly 50,000 fighters, including Arab factions under the Syrian Arab Coalition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The U.S. relationship with Turkey has soured since President Trump decided in May to provide arms to the SDF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Wednesday, Ankara allegedly leaked the locations of U.S. military installations to its state-run wire service, the Anadolu Agency, in Syria in retribution for U.S. support of the Kurdish fighters, according to a report by the Daily Beast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kurdish fighters are currently in their second month to liberate ISIS\u2019 de facto capital of Raqqa, where fighting has slowed in recent days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas described the nature of the U.S. relationship with its partner forces as \u201csometimes it is of necessity who is available.\u201d He also painted the Kurdish fighters as \u201cthe ones most discussed and most misunderstood.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Speaking on a panel at the Aspen Security Forum, Gen. Raymond Thomas, the commander of US Special Operations Command (SOCOM), said the U.S. asked the People\u2019s Protection Unit, or YPG, to re-brand because of its alleged linkages to the Kurdistan Worker\u2019s Party (PKK), an internationally designated terrorist group.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":74777,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[100,8,12,25],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3351],"class_list":["post-67527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-flashpoints","category-news","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"\u201cWe literally replied back to them and said you got to change your brand.\u201d","legacy_arc_id":"TY5TIB3A3JH5LBUDYAO2GBVTRQ","arc_canonical_url":"\/2017\/07\/22\/socom-commander-us-asked-ypg-to-re-brand-because-of-alleged-terrorist-link\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n