The United States will soon begin arming the Kurdish militant group in Syria fighting Islamic State with ammunition, small arms, heavy machine guns and mortars, Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Col. John Dorrian said during a briefing on Wednesday.
"So what we are talking about here is ammunition, small arms, heavy machine guns and mortars will be included," Dorrian told reporters.
The U.S. may start distributing some arms and equipment to YPG "very quickly" but it will be done incrementally, Dorrian said.
"We've got a certain amount of supply in the country already that was used to equip the Syrian Arab Coalition and some of that may be distributed very quickly," Coalition spokesman U.S. Air Force Colonel John Dorrian told reporters. He did not give a specific timeline but said it would be incremental and provided as needed.
Despite fierce opposition from the Turkish government, U.S. President Donald Trump this week approved supplying arms to the YPG to support an operation to retake the Syrian city of Raqqa from Islamic State.
