US holds direct talks with embattled Syrian Kurds
WASHINGTON - A US State Department official held direct talks for the first time last weekend with a Syrian Kurdish group involved in the fight against Islamic State in Syria, including the besieged town of Kobani, the State Department said on Thursday.
Following the talks, the last three days saw an upsurge in US air strikes on Islamic State forces besieging the town, and Kurdish spokesmen said their forces were giving coordinates of the militants' positions to the United States.
"We have for some time had conversations through intermediaries with the PYD (Democratic Union Party). We have engaged over the course of just last weekend with the PYD," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in Washington.
