Clinton says will support Kurdish forces

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (Kurdistan24) – The US Presidential Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton vowed to support Kurdish forces in the war on the Islamic State (IS) group during a Monday presidential debate with her Republican rival Donald Trump in New York.

We "have to intensify our air strikes against ISIS and eventually support our Arab and Kurdish partners to be able to actually take out ISIS in Raqqa, end their claim of being a Caliphate," said Clinton in remarks that will likely anger her country's NATO ally Turkey.

The US is already the biggest military backer of Kurdish forces in both Iraq and Syria where they have won multiple victories against the IS since late 2014, liberating towns and shrinking its hold on large swathes of land.

The Republican nominee Trump, on his part, who favored an isolationist foreign policy and ranted on the financial brunt of the US military hegemony around the globe did not mention the Kurds but vowed to destroy the IS.

Turkish authorities, particularly President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, have already repeatedly ruled out any US suggestion of liberating the de facto IS capital of Raqqa with the Kurds.

In fact, hours after Clinton's declaration of support for Kurdish forces, the Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu described on Tuesday any cooperation with the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in an offensive to capture Raqqa as "a grave mistake."

Cavusoglu was speaking at a press conference in Ankara with his British counterpart Boris Johnson who is on an official visit to Turkey.

The US which agreed with Turkey to put Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on the terrorist list has refused to accept similar allegations against the YPG. Indeed Washington has repeatedly stated that Kurds are one of the most reliable allies in fighting IS.

The deepening US-Kurdish collaboration in the face of the IS has alarmed Turkey which is fearful of the rising Kurdish status in the world and their aspirations for demanding equal rights within its own borders too.

Earlier this year UN deplored Turkey for committing war crimes and military abuse in the Kurdish region, stating that Turkish army has shot unarmed civilians, including women and children during the crackdowns. Government forces also caused huge damage to the local infrastructure, UN said.

CLINTON AND FEMALE KURDISH FIGHTERS

Over the course of two years into her bid for the US presidency Clinton has often reiterated the continuation and an increase of support for the Kurds.

At a December 2014 question-and-answer session at Georgetown University, the former US Secretary of State spoke of the role of the Kurdish women fighters who then earned much worldwide publicity during the months-long IS siege on the city of Kobani and eventual Kurdish victory in Syrian Kurdistan.

"There are ... all women Peshmerga units. There has been some publicity given to the Kurdish women fighting alongside their brothers or fighting on their own behalf," stated Clinton who, if elected, will become the first female president in the US history.

Dismissing some Syrian rebel groups as "retrograde, regressive and extremist who gave women no role," the former New York Senator went on saying, "We should do what we can to support those women who truly are on the frontlines in protecting their communities against this extremist threat from ISIS and others."

Editing by Ava Homa