Did America Create ISIS? Islamic State Weapons Didn't Come From US, Washington Tells Turkey

The U.S. denied Wednesday reports that it supports the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, rejecting comments made Tuesday by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In an online statement addressed "to those interested in the truths," the U.S. Embassy in Ankara warned of "considerable misinformation circulating in Turkish media" regarding Washington and its allies' role in the conflict in Syria. The embassy rebuffed claims it provided assistance to ISIS or Kurdish militant groups such as the People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK), both of which are labeled terrorist organizations by Turkey and are active in northern Syria.

"The United States government is not supporting DAESH. The [United States government] did not create or support DAESH in the past. Assertions the United States government is supporting DAESH are not true," the embassy wrote, using the Arabic-language acronym for ISIS. "The United States government has not provided weapons or explosives to the YPG or the PKK – period. We repeatedly have condemned PKK terrorist attacks and the group’s reprehensible violence in Turkey."

The U.S. and Turkey have both supported various opposition forces against Syrian President Bashar Assad and his allies, including Russia and Iran, in Syria's five-year civil war. Syrian rebels made territorial gains early on in the conflict, but a decline in U.S. support, Russian intervention and fractures across ideological lines have led to a series of major defeats within the past year. While ISIS has clashed with rebels, major opposition groups such as Ahrar al-Sham and Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, formerly the Nusra Front, have been linked to Al Qaeda.

Although the U.S. condemns ISIS and has labeled it a terrorist organization, ISIS has received U.S. weapons through Washington-backed Syrian rebels either by warfare or surrender. The CIA is believed to have overseen a limited arming program of opposition forces deemed moderate and supplied through Turkey. The U.S. has also supported Kurdish militants such as the YPG against ISIS-sieged areas in northern Syria.

U.S. support for Kurds as well as Washington's decision not to include Turkey in the operation to defeat ISIS in the group's Iraqi stronghold of Mosul has been a source of contention between the U.S. and Turkey, which is currently in talks with Russia and Iran in an attempt to resolve the conflict that has killed over 400,000 Syrians and displaced millions more.