Turkey's Erdogan says Kurdish PYD fighting Islamic State is terror group

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Syrian Kurdish militants backed by the United States in the fight against Islamic State belong to a terrorist organization and are collaborating with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday. The Democratic Union Party's (PYD) role supporting the U.S.-led coalition's battle against Islamic State does not give the group legitimacy, Erdogan said in remarks broadcast live from Brussels. The autonomy-seeking PKK, which has close links with the PYD, has waged a war against Turkey since 1984 that flared anew this summer. Turkey, the European Union and the United States all list the PKK as a terrorist organization. (Reporting by Robin Emmott in Brussels and Ayla Jean Yackley in Istanbul; editing by John Stonestreet)