Turkey’s Erdogan condemns US over Kurdish militia insignia

ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey’s president has pressed ahead with his criticism of the United States over the U.S. troops’ wearing the patches of Kurdish forces.

In a speech Saturday in the mainly-Kurdish city of Diyarbakir, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “condemned” Washington and accused Turkey’s NATO ally of not being “honest.”

A U.S. military spokesman said Friday that American troops were not authorized to wear the insignia of Kurdish People’s Protection Units, which are fighting the Islamic State group, and said they had been ordered to remove them. Turkey views the YPG as an extension of an outlawed Kurdish rebel group considered a terror organization.

Erdogan said: “Those who are our friends, those who are with us in NATO, should not and cannot send their soldiers to Syria with the sign of the YPG.”