US flags flown by Kurdish group

The American flag was flown at a Syrian Kurdish base in northern Syria close to the Turkish border on Friday, a photographer working for AFP said, a day after the US urged against doing so.

In Tal Abyad, the stars and stripes -- flown by the People's Protection Units (YPG) militia -- could be seen from the Turkish border town of Akcakale in the southeastern Sanliurfa province.

Tal Abyad in Raqa province was captured from IS by the YPG in June 2015.

Ankara regards the militia and the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) as the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) which has waged a 32-year insurgency inside Turkey.

But the YPG has become a key partner of the US-led coalition fighting Islamic State (IS) extremists as part of the Kurdish-Arab Syrian Democratic Forces, much to the chagrin of Washington's NATO ally Ankara.

Turkish media said that US flags had been flown by the Kurdish fighters on Thursday but Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said he was not aware of the reports.

He repeated the US' opposition during a press briefing on Thursday, quoted on the US defence department's website.

"We would call on our partner forces not to fly the American flag on their own. I would imagine that that would be communicated if indeed that's taken place in this instance."

The flags' presence comes two weeks after Kurdish fighters displayed the US flag north of the city of Manbij liberated from IS in August, Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency said.

Anadolu claimed that local sources said on Thursday the flags were being used as a deterrent against any possible attack.

Source: AFP