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 from Anadolu: When will Raqqa operation begin?
Dorrian: We believe the delivery of these capabilities will accelerate the start of the operation to liberate Raqqa.
Dorrian: We continue talking to Turkey every day … I think it is best not to speculate on what future roles might be.
Q from Daily Sabah – will weapons be US-made?
Dorrian: We’re not really going to go into a lot of specificity into what will be provided. What I can tell you is that all of these items are going to be metered out for specific operations.
Q Will you provide anti-tank missiles, like TOW missiles?
Dorrian: We’re going to provide weapons that are capable of defeating VBIEDs … These are very difficult to defeat with a rifle alone … every single one of these weapons provided we are going to account for.
Q from Kurdistan25 re new kinds of weapons for SDF
Dorrian: Small arms and ammunition … heavy machine guns
Q re mortars
Dorrian: “Mortars will be included, yes”
Question NYT: Have you started process of arming Kurds? Will Kurds and SAC be receiving the same weapons?
Dorrian: Some of the equipment are already in theatre and some may have begun being dispersed, but decision yesterday was authorities so this will be an ongoing effort.
“Some of the equipment and the resources that are going to be provided are already in theater and some of those may have begun to be dispersed very quickly”