The U.S. has been clear that its coalition's goal and focus in northern Syria is fighting ISIL and not changing the map in Syria, a U.S. official said Monday. State Department's spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. and Turkey continued to have conversations about how to bolster security in the region and achieve a common objective. "And we've also said, been very clear that we're not interested in doing anything that is going to change the territorial integrity of Syria," Kirby said, asserting that no support would be made by coalition forces to do anything to change the territorial integrity of Syria. "The mission here hasn't changed," he said. "It's about degrading and destroying ISIL." He added that the coalition would continue to support fighters - not only Kurdish, but also Arab and Turkmen - on the ground in northern Syria, who are "willing and effective partners" and executing operations against ISIL. "That's the goal, not changing the map of Syria," he stressed. Last month, Turkey agreed to allow U.S.-led coalition forces to launch airstrikes against ISIL positions from Incirlik, which is located close to Turkey's border with war-torn Syria. The U.S. began flying armed missions from the strategic Incirlik Air Base in southeastern Turkey last weekend, and carried out the first unmanned airstrike from the facility last Tuesday. Over the weekend, the U.S. sent a contingent of six F-16s, and 300 American personnel to the base. Since the operation began, there has been a huge debate about whether the operation concerned only Daesh. Turkey's foreign ministry has said it targeted only Daesh and did not include air support for pro-Kurdish People's Defense Unit's (YPG) in Syria -- the armed wing of the PYD. Turkey's PYD is the extension of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - considered a terror organization by Turkey, U.S. and EU. However, the U.S. remains ambiguous about the issue by saying that the PYD was effective in the fight against ISIL.
