Turkey's defense minister said on Thursday he had told his US counterpart, Jim Mattis, that the Syrian Kurdish YPG should be removed from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the militia that Washington is backing in the fight against Islamic State.
Nurettin Canikli, in a briefing to reporters in Brussels after meeting with the U.S. Defence Secretary, also said he disputed Mattis's characterisation of the SDF as dominated by Arabs, saying the militia was completely controlled by the YPG.
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