President Donald Trump approves plan to arm Kurdish groups fighting ISIS in Syria, despite Turkey’s objections
As it happened …
Note the text below may not be verbatim. We’ll post the transcript as soon at it becomes available.
Q CBS News: Re Tabqa dam, is there any sign ISIS will sabotage dam?
Dorrian: We don;t have any indications at this point … they are heavily barricaded in there … foreign fighters …
Q Since the announcement, has there been any change in Mil to Mil relations?
Dorrian: I’m not aware of any changes.
Q Is it fair to say Raqqa is the largest concentration of ISIS fighters?
Dorrian: Raqqa is the focus … where the largest number of fighters remain … largest concentration is in Mosul … We see significant numbers of fighters along the Euphrates river valley.
Q Military.com: Are US forces continuing to go to the Turkish border?
Dorrian: We will continue to do that intermittently throughout the campaign.
Q Will there be additional vetting?
Dorrian: We resource only entities that can be vetted … that has been done with any element that is receiving resources and capabilities … we continue to monitor what partnered forces do
Q Reuters: Have resources started being dispersed to YPG?
Dorrian: I don’t have that level of fidelity on exactly when these capabilities will be put into the hands of Kurdish fighters … some may be distributed very quickly.
Q Has anything moved to the YPG so far?
Dorrian: I don’t know … Yesterday’s decision was to grant authorities.