Erdogan slams US for supporting Kurdish fighters

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan criticised the US for its support of Syrian Kurdish rebels, saying Washington's inability to understand the group's true nature had turned the region into a "sea of blood."

Turkey considers the Democratic Union Party (PYD) to be a terrorist organization, citing its ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has carried out a three-decade violent insurgency for Kurdish autonomy in Turkey's mainly Kurdish southeast.

"Are you on our side or the side of the terrorist PYD and PKK organization?" Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara to provincial officials, referring to Washington's backing of the Syrian Kurdish fighters against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Erdogan's comments come as he faces pressure to allow in 30,000 Syrians stranded on the border with Turkey.

The refugees have fled an offensive by Syrian government forces and allied militias on rebel-held areas around the northern city of Aleppo.

France's outgoing foreign minister, Laurent Fabius, also criticised US policy in Syria on Wednesday, saying that its ambiguity had contributed to the failure to end the conflict.

"We don't have the feeling that there is a very strong commitment," he said.