---
title: "US-Backed Allies in Syria Are Now Rolling Deep In MRAPs"
date: "2018-05-09"
modified: "2018-05-09"
authors:
  - name: "Jared Keller"
    job_title: "Former Managing Editor"
    link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller.md"
url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/us-allies-syria-ypg-mrap/"
categories:
  - "News"
---

# US-Backed Allies in Syria Are Now Rolling Deep In MRAPs

![](<https://taskandpurpose.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/02/18988259-1.png>)

Holy armored combat vehicles, Batman! The U.S.-backed Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) in Syria recently posted a video showing off a hulking mine-resistant ambush protection vehicle (or MRAP, you goons), standing by and ready to fuck, ahead of a YPG assault on ISIS positions near the eastern Syrian town of Deir ez-Zor.

- **This is new?** Military Times [reports](<https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2018/05/08/us-backed-syrian-fighters-spotted-in-mraps-prior-to-isis-assault/>) that MRAPs were "not previously authorized for provision to U.S.-backed forces" as part of Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria, but Pentagon spokesman Maj. Adrian Rankine-Galloway [confirmed](<https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2018/05/08/us-backed-syrian-fighters-spotted-in-mraps-prior-to-isis-assault/>) to the publication that, yes, those are U.S.-supplied MRAPs, and yes, they are "an essential component of the SDF."

[\#YPG](<https://twitter.com/hashtag/YPG?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%255Etfw>)-led [\#SDF](<https://twitter.com/hashtag/SDF?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%255Etfw>) fighters advance into IS-held area in Deir al-Zour[\#JazeerStorm](<https://twitter.com/hashtag/JazeerStorm?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%255Etfw>)[pic.twitter.com/qjon2FFzfs](<https://t.co/qjon2FFzfs>)

— Rojava Defense Units | YPG (@DefenseUnits) [May 8, 2018](<https://twitter.com/DefenseUnits/status/993808938134065153?ref_src=twsrc%255Etfw>)

- **Maybe not *that* new.** In July 2017, Kurdish activists posted video to social media of U.S.-made MRAPs and other armored vehicles rolling into Syria on the back of flatbed trucks, ostensibly to support the anti-ISIS fight there; Pentagon officials [told](<https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2017/07/19/us-armored-vehicles-seen-pouring-into-syria/>) Military Times at the time that the vehicles " not part of the U-S.-led coalition's aid to Kurdish allies on the ground."
- **But who's paying?** Up-armored Humvees and Guardian personnel carriers were included as part of the Pentagon's fiscal 2018 request for funds to train and equip Syrian partner forces... *but* the DoD's fiscal 2019 OCO [budget](<https://comptroller.defense.gov/Portals/45/Documents/defbudget/fy2019/fy2019_CTEF_JBook_Final.pdf>) only calls for 820 "non-tactical" vehicles and 200 non-standard commercial vehicles. With MRAPs explicitly absent from that allocation, it's unclear where the funding and authorization for such transfers originated from.
- **Here's why it matters:** "U.S. military assistance to Kurdish fighters has been a source of contention with Turkey, a NATO ally. Turkey claims the YPG is aligned with the Kurdistan Worker’s Party, or PKK, which is listed as a terror group by both countries," [notes](<https://www.militarytimes.com/flashpoints/2018/05/08/us-backed-syrian-fighters-spotted-in-mraps-prior-to-isis-assault/>) Military Times' Kyle Rempfer. "In the end, the Pentagon may be walking a thin line in relations with Turkey by providing high-tech equipment to Syrian Arabs, rather than Syrian Kurds, when both groups exist within the same SDF coalition."

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## Author
Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications.

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