U.S. committed to helping Syrian Kurds

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region (K24) – On Thursday, the U.S. State Department spokesperson, John Kirby said that the U.S. is going to continue to support the Syrian Kurdish forces "as best it can" in the fight against the Islamic State (IS).

Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) has become the main secular and militarily resistant force against the IS that the U.S. administration can rely on in Syria.

YPG and its recently-formed affiliate Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a multi-ethnic alliance, are also the principal recipients of U.S. military aid.

During a briefing in Washington, Kirby told members of the press that YPG fighters were proving effective against IS militants.

According to a transcript and video of the briefing released on the State Department website, Kirby stated that “nothing has changed about the American commitment to helping” the Kurds.

Asked about the possibility of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) members amongst the YPG ranks, who the U.S. designates as terrorists, Kirby said that he had not seen such reports. "I don’t have the identification cards of everybody in the YPG," he added, refusing to provide further comments regarding the matter.

Turkey, weary of the PKK and its own Kurds' political aspirations, has long been a fierce opponent of U.S. military aid for the YPG. Last year, the YPG defeated the IS on several fronts under the cover of U.S. warplanes, most notably in the battle for Kobani.

Turkish officials, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, often equate YPG with the IS. Furthermore, they have repeatedly voiced concern over Kurdish advances, especially to the west of the Euphrates River in Syria.

Meanwhile, Colonel Steve Warren, the spokesperson for the U.S. military operation against the IS, said on Thursday that the Kurdish-dominated SDF have come to "their limit of advance" in the Tishrin Dam offensive, south-west of the town of Kobani in northern Syria.

Warren's comment was reminiscent of Turkish officials' "red line" that denied the Kurds the right to cross the Euphrates, though they did cross after capturing the Tishrin Dam from IS in late December 2015.

Warren said that the SDF, with the support of anti-IS coalition airpower, has repelled repeated enemy attacks in Tishrin.

The Kurds are now pushing for the town of Manbij, 30 kilometers west of the river, in Aleppo province.

Warren said that the U.S. was also providing airpower to the Syrian rebels in the border towns of Jarablus and Azaz, areas that the Kurds want to capture themselves.