Best synopsis I can gather from convoluted Turkey-Syria-US-Russia-Iran-ISL-Hezbollah-Israel recent events

YPG - national Kurdish army in Syria fighting ISIL, SDF was formed in 2015 with US help. (Kurds & Arabs make up SDF).

PKK - labelled terrorists by US, EU, & Turkey

PYD-political link to YPG. Says not joined with PKK

Operation Olive Branch -Turks (& anti-Assad Syrians ) attacked PKK/YPG/ISIL. Mattis said some YPG&SDF splintered to join PKK against Turks.

www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/mattis-pydpkk-shifting-afrin-180212074403547.html

Russia gave blessing for Turks to attack Afrin. (Russia controls air space around Afrin through ally with Assad. Russia pulled troops from Afrin before Turkish air strikes

US allowed border skirmish to calm Turkey’s concerns

YPG shot down Turk helo

YPG destroyed Turkish tank w/Iranian weapons

Israel air strikes to Iranian bases in Syria; YPG shoots down Israeli F16, Hezbollah trying to deny Israel access to Syrian airspace.

Trump stated continue support of Kurdish elements in SDF instead of Arab element by BHO. 2 wks ago said US will no longer fund YPG. Trump claim to defeating ISIL was YPG ground with US air support. >legit Kurdish state in Syria as long as US troops deployed which DoD stated. Turkey would rather have ISIL then the Kurds in Syria

US now stuck with defending YPG against Turkish and ISIL joint Operation Olive Branch. Turkey now is threatening to take nearly YPG reclaimed Arab town of Manbij, which would undo US campaign against ISIL. Turkey will withdraw and leave northern Syria people to deal with ISIL/PKK while Russia looks on.

Russia shot down border YPG/PKK

SDF forces came under attack by tanks provided by Russia. (FSA-largely defunct umbrella grouping of non-Jihadi Syrian rebels once backed by the West).

Turkey is recruiting ex-ISIL to take out YPG www.counterpunch.org/2018/02/12/is-turkey-recruiting-ex-isis-fighters/

I don’t think anyone know loyalties of splinter group comprising of YPG/SDF (Kurds).