Featured:

Turkey says Kurds have US UAV

By

U.S. Army Sgt. Daniel Tellechea of Bravo Company, 10th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 1st Armored Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division launches a RQ-20 Puma Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) while conducting UAV training during exercise Combined Resolve V at the U.S. Army’s Joint Multinational Readiness Center in Hohenfels, Germany, Oct. 22, 2015. Exercise Combined Resolve V is designed to exercise the U.S. Army’s regionally allocated force to the U.S. European Command area of responsibility with multinational training at all echelons. Approximately 4,600 participants from 13 NATO and European partner nations will participate. The exercise involves around 2,000 U.S. troops and 2,600 NATO and Partner for peace nations. Combined Resolve is a preplanned exercise that does not fall under Operation Atlantic resolve. This exercise will train participants to function together in a joint, multinational and integrated environment and train U.S. rotational forces to be more flexible, agile, and to better operate alongside our NATO Allies. (U.S. Army photo by Spc. John Cress Jr./Released)

Turkey claims it has captured a U.S.-made unmanned aerial vehicleUAV from Kurdish rebels.

The RQ-20 Puma UAV was seized during Turkish operations against Kurdish Workers Party (PKK) forces in the Silopi district of the southeastern province of Sirnak, according to Turkish news site Today’s Zaman. [http://www.todayszaman.com/diplomacy_turkish-military-seizes-us-made-uav-in-anti-pkk-operation_410258.html].

“The website of the Turkish General Staff released photos of the RQ-20 Puma, a UAV model, that is believed to have been delivered to Kurdish militia, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), by the U.S. in Syria for use against the extremist Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL),” the article said.

“Turkish military officials believe that the UAV may have been handed to PKK militants in Turkey’s Southeast in the fight against the security forces by their Syrian Kurdish brethren,” said Today’s Zaman.

About 

Michael Peck is a correspondent for Defense News and a columnist for the Center for European Policy Analysis. He holds an M.A. in political science from Rutgers University. Find him at theuncommondefense.com. His email is mikedefense1@gmail.com.