At a recent ceremony for 250 Arab recruits who had just completed training with the U.S. military near Manbij, the newly minted soldiers were told they would be heading not to the Raqqa front lines but to Aleppo, to confront the rebels backed by Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States. As U.S. Special Operations troops looked on, Abu Amjad al-Adnan, commander of the Manbij recruits, rallied the soldiers to take the fight to the forces backed by ‚terrorist Turkey.‘ U.S. advisers are also present on the ground with the Turkish-backed rebels in Syria, setting up a scenario in which U.S. Special Operations forces embedded with opposing sides could confront one another. ‚We have taken prisoners who were trained by the United States, and the Turks have prisoners of ours who were also trained by the United States,‘ said Abu Amjad, who keeps a photograph of Ocalan as the screen saver on his phone.“ (Liz Sly: „U.S. military aid is fueling big ambitions for Syria’s leftist Kurdish militia“)
