ISTANBUL -- An uneasy truce between Turkish troops and Kurdish-led forces in northern Syria held on Wednesday, despite Ankara's vow that it would never negotiate with what it calls a "terror organization."
The U.S. has called on both sides to stop fighting each other and focus on defeating the Islamic State group, hoping to halt days of clashes between a NATO ally and a Kurdish force that has proven to be highly effective against the Islamic State.
But a spokesman for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey would continue to attack U.S.-backed Kurdish militias inside Syria. The spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said a cease-fire was "out of the question."
Turkey views the Syrian Kurdish fighters as an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, which has waged a decades-long insurgency in Turkey and is viewed as a terrorist group by Turkey and the U.S.
Washington sees the Kurds as a key partner against ISIS, an acronym by which the Islamic State is known, and U.S. airstrikes have helped a Kurdish-led militia known as the Syria Democratic Forces to seize a large swath of territory from the extremists in recent months.
There were no reports of clashes between Turkey and the Kurds on Wednesday, marking the third day of calm and suggesting that the U.S. had prevailed over its two allies to keep their distance.
Meanwhile, an Islamic State suicide bomber struck Turkish-backed Syrian rebels near the border, causing casualties, according to an opposition monitoring group and an Islamic State-run news agency.
The Islamic State's Aamaq news agency said the "martyrdom" attack occurred in the village of Kuliyeh, west of the Syrian border town of Jarablus, which the rebels captured from the Islamic State last week.
The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on activists inside Syria, said Wednesday's attack was carried out by a North African Islamic State member. It said casualties were inflicted but did not give figures.
Later in the day, Turkish jets struck four buildings in Kuliyeh and nearby Zaghrah, killing some Islamic State militants, Turkish military officials said.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity, in line with government rules, and did not provide further details.
Last week, Turkey sent troops and warplanes across the border to help Syrian rebels capture Jarablus. But then clashes broke out with the Kurds, who are dug in to the south in the town of Manbij, also recently seized from the Islamic State.
Turkey has demanded that Kurdish forces withdraw to the east of the Euphrates River, which would include a pullout from Manbij, where the Kurds took heavy casualties in months of fighting with the Islamic State over the summer.
On Wednesday, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said military operations in Syria "will continue until all terrorist elements have been neutralized, until all threats to our borders, our lands and our citizens are completely over."
He reiterated Turkish demands that Washington live up to its assurances that the Syrian Kurdish forces would immediately withdraw to the east of the Euphrates.
The Pentagon says Kurdish forces have already moved east of the Euphrates, in compliance with Turkish and U.S. demands.
On Tuesday, the Kurdish-backed Jarablus Military Council said it had agreed to a cease-fire with the Turkish military in a disputed area in northern Syria after lengthy consultations with the anti-ISIS coalition.
Kalin told reporters in Ankara that Turkey will not negotiate with the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party, which is the main component of the Syria Democratic Forces.
"The PYD [Democratic Union Party], as the Syrian extension of the PKK [Kurdistan Workers' Party], is a terror organization," Kalin said. "It is out of the question for the Turkish Republic to have any kind of a tie, an agreement ... with this organization."
He added that Erdogan is now engaged in a diplomatic push to secure a broader cease-fire in Syria during the upcoming three-day Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which would allow aid to reach the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo. Erdogan will discuss the issue during the Group of 20 summit in China, which begins Sunday, he said.
Information for this article was contributed by Suzan Fraser and Bassem Mroue of The Associated Press.
A Section on 09/01/2016