The People‘s Protection Units, or YPG is the armed wing of the PYD. Turkey considers the group to be an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, militant group that has waged a three-decade long bloody insurgency in Turkey. The U.S. and EU have listed the PKK as a terrorist organization.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said that a U.S. official met with the PYD outside the region during the weekend.