US supports YPG faction not operating around Aleppo: official

WASHINGTON

The YPG group the U.S. supports in northern Syria is not part of the YPG that is seizing additional territory around Azaz and Afrin, an American spokesman said Wednesday.

"The YPG groups that we're supporting, there are various parts of the YPG on the ground in Syria. And the ones -- the groups that we're supporting are actually not the same groups," according to State Department spokesman Mark Toner.

"Obviously, they're part of the same organization, but not these ones who are taking territory in and around Aleppo ... the groups that we've been supporting through airstrikes, through various means, have actually continued to effectively fight ISIL on the ground in northern Syria," he said.

Saying that the U.S. has seen "no evidence other than that these different groups may be taking advantage of the situation,"

Toner stressed that it was not "uncommon" to see this kind of "land-grab" in a run up to a cease-fire.

He also noted that the U.S. is aware that the YPG -- the armed wing of the terrorist PKK's Syrian affiliate PYD – is currently taking additional territory outside of Afrin, including areas close to Azaz and the Manakh Air Base in northern Syria, near the Turkish border.

Toner said the U.S. was very clear in its message to the YPG that taking additional land around Afrin and Azaz was "heightening tensions with Turkey".

"We called these moves, both publicly but also privately in our conversations with the YPG leadership, counterproductive and said that they undermine our collective cooperative efforts to degrade and defeat Daesh," Toner said.

The U.S. also conveyed to the Turkish government to cease its artillery fire across the border, adding no recent fire was seen from the Turkish border during the last 24 hours.

Asked whether the U.S. was delivering weapons to the YPG, Toner said the U.S. "never" provided any arms to the group, refuting media reports that claim the Russia-Syria backed YPG was using U.S. tanks while operating in the region. "Equipment and various weaponry, while given to the quote unquote "good guys," somehow -- sometimes ends up in the hands of the quote unquote "bad guys," he said, while declining to comment on remarks by Syria’s UN who said Syrian- Kurdish groups supported by the U.S. were also supported by the Syrian government.

Toner's comments came after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that the U.S. ignoring the link between PYD and PKK was a "hostile attitude" toward Turkey. Turkish shelling of PYD and PKK positions in northern Syria for four consecutive days in retaliation to artillery fire from PYD forces based around Azaz town, located in Aleppo’s northern countryside just 6 kilometers (4 miles) from the Turkish border.

The exchange of fire came after the YPG's recent advance into Azaz, which has been the scene of recent heavy fighting.

The PYD is the Syrian branch of the terrorist-declared PKK, which has since 1984 targeted Turkish security forces and civilians.