The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or PKK, and the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, or PJAK, are separatist groups operating in northern Iraq and neighboring regions in Iran and Turkey. An October piece in The New York Times described the PJAK as an offshoot of the PKK.

The PJAK has been known to launch attacks against Iranian forces from their areas of operation in the region. While the PKK is designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, the PJAK is not formally listed as such.

A report released in The New Yorker magazine by investigative journalist Seymour Hersh suggests U.S. covert operations agencies back the group, as well as the People's Mujahadin of Iran for their opposition to the Iranian regime.

In a news briefing with reporters, however, U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey emphatically denied both the relationship between the PKK and the PJAK and U.S. affiliation with either group.

"Are we engaging in conversations with the PKK, affiliates of the PKK, anyone associated with the PKK? And the answer to that was, is, and I suspect forever shall be no," he said.

Casey said the U.S. policy of not dealing with terrorist groups applies to any and all affiliates of the PKK.

"We don't support them, we do not talk with them, we do not engage with them. That applies to the PKK, regardless of what name any of their individuals are operating under," he said.