Erdogan tells Kurdish militia: You can’t rely on U.S. support to defeat Turkey

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday said his forces would crush the U.S.-backed Syrian-Kurdish YPG militia, saying it could not rely on Washington’s support to defeat Turkey.

Speaking to a congress of his ruling AK Party in the northwestern city of Bursa, Erdogan also accused some of Turkey’s allies of providing 2,000 plane shipments and 5,000 truckloads of weapons to the YPG, a comment that appeared aimed at the United States.

Turkey considers the YPG to be an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has waged a three-decade insurgency in Turkey’s largely Kurdish southeast. The United States has backed the YPG in its fight against Islamic State in Syria.