The State Department on Monday said it has no complaints against Turkey's decision to bomb the Kurdistan Workers' Party, known as the PKK, even though that group has had some success in fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.

Turkey started bombing both the PKK and ISIS over the weekend, after it agreed to allow the U.S. and other coalition forces use bases in Turkey to launch strikes against the Islamic State.

The U.S. has designated the PKK as a foreign terrorist organization, but Turkey's strikes against that group led to some confusion, as Kurdish attacks are a part of the coalition plan for defeating the Islamic State. The confusion led Turkey to clarify that it is only attacking the PKK for past terrorist attacks against Turkey, and ISIS, but not Syrian Kurds.

There has also been speculation that attacks against the PKK were somehow part of the deal in which Turkey allowed strikes against ISIS from within its borders. But the State Department dismissed this as "coincidence" and said Turkey is justly retaliating against past attacks from the PKK.

"I understand the coincidence of all of this, but it is just that," said State Department spokesman John Kirby. "The attacks against the PKK were retaliations for attacks they, the Turks, endured and what they're doing against ISIL in Syria, I'll let them speak to [it]."

Kirby was also asked specifically if Turkey's strikes against the PKK would hurt efforts to fight ISIS, but he dodged that question.

"What we're trying to focus on here is a coalition to go after ISIL, counter ISIL," he said, using the alternative term for the group. "I recognize that in some cases the PKK have fought against ISIL, but they are a foreign terrorist organization."

He also stressed that regardless of the PKK's past battles against the Islamic State, the U.S. is not consulting the PKK or any other terrorist group on strategy against ISIS.

"Our fight against ISIL is not in cooperation with or coordination with or communication with the PKK," he said, indicating that the PKK is in a sense expendable as part of this larger effort.

"The fight against ISIL is broader than this, broader than one group's effort against ISIL," he said.