Why is there a space between span elements in HTML after publishing?

Hi,

I am experiencing a random space in transformed HTML and I can't figure out what is causing it.

Given a DITA topic containing a conref out to another topic where source topic has
<p><ph conref="conrefID#conrefID/ph_element_ID"/>.</p>

and conreffed topic has structure


<topic id="conrefID">

<ph id="ph_element_ID" translate="no">
<ph ishcondition="country='United States'" id="individual_ph_ID1"><xref href="">https://www.url1.com" scope="external">www.url1.com</.../ph>
<ph ishcondition="country=Canada" id="individual_ph_ID2"><xref href="">https://www.url2.com" scope="external">www.url2.com</.../ph>
<ph ishcondition="country='United Kingdom'" id="individual_ph_ID3"><xref href="">https://www.url3.com" scope="external">www.url3.com</.../ph>
</ph>

When this gets presented in Publication Manager HTML view and when this published, there is a space in output between the 2 generated <span> elements

<p><span><span>www.url1.com</span> </span>.</p>

Does anyone know what might be causing this?

Thanks in advance,

Ann

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