Photo: EPA

Turkey’s deputy prime minister says the US decision to supply weapons to Kurdish fighters battling Islamic State militants in Syria is “unacceptable,” the BBC reports.

Arming the Popular Protection Units (YPG) would “not be beneficial”, Nurettin Canikli told A Haber TV.

Ankara says the YPG is an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), designated a terrorist group by the US.

Washington says the YPG is essential to the operation to capture the IS stronghold of Raqqa.

The YPG leads the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias that has driven IS militants from about 6,000 sq km of northern Syria over the past two years with the help of US-led coalition air strikes and military advisers.