Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan laid into the United States, accusing it of supporting Kurdish militants on Monday, days after Turkish troops found the bodies of 13 Turkish soldiers, police and civilians abducted by Kurdish insurgents in a cave complex in northern Iraq.
Addressing his ruling party's supporters in the Black Sea city of Rize, Erdogan also took aim at a U.S. State Department statement which deplored the deaths of the hostages, but added that the United States would condemn the deaths "in the strongest possible terms" if it is confirmed that they died at the hands of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK.
"Did you not say you don’t support the PKK, the YPG or the PYD? You are with them and behind them pure and simple," Erdogan said, referring to Syrian Kurdish groups linked to the PKK, which Turkey considers to be terrorists but which were allied with the United States in the fight against the Islamic State.