It was the third successive day that Syrian planes had either flown over or attacked positions in the city of of Al-Hasakah held by Kurdish forces fighting against Islamist fighters and forces loyal to the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
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Regime forces and Kurdish fighters agreed to a truce in the flashpoint Syrian city of Hasakeh on Sunday after two days of Russian mediation efforts, a military source told AFP.
“The Syrian regime wanted to send a clear message to the SDF that its power in Hasakah is limited and the regime airstrikes were carried out to serve this objective”.
As tension grew bigger, the Kurdish militias demanded the dissolve of the NDF in Hasakah, a request denied by the Syrian army.
Capt Davis told journalists that the USA had warned Syria via its communication channel with Russian Federation that it would defend coalition troops.
Faysal Itani, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council think tank, said it was easy for the Syrian government to avoid bombing large bases but far more risky to strike areas close to YPG forces being trained by the coalition.
The encounter highlights a longstanding risk of USA involvement in Syria: the prospect that a direct attack on US forces by the Syrian government or its Russian allies could dramatically raise the stakes in the conflict for Washington and test the resolve of a White House with limited appetite for military intervention.
The U.S. -backed group is a coalition of fighters that includes the YPG, and other Kurdish groups, as well as Arab and Turkmen militias.
The deployment of U.S. troops have been authorised by President Obama to back local militias fighting the self-styled Islamic State (ISIL) in Syria, but he has always ruled out sending ground forces to the conflict.
The Observatory said there was no let-up in the fighting on the ground which has left 39 people dead since Wednesday, 23 of them civilians, including nine children.
Fighting there could complicate the battle against Islamic State because of the Kurds’ pivotal role in the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces’ (SDF) fight against the group.
Spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said the Syrian planes did not respond to efforts by ground forces to contact them.
Civilians on the ground are already complaining that the US-led coalition is not doing enough and have called on the global community to do more.
Thousands of civilians in the ethnically mixed city have fled to villages in the countryside as the fighting intensified, residents said. A local journalist working for AFP said he saw members of the pro-government National Defense Forces militia retreating from Al-Nashwa, while a Russian mediation bid failed to halt clashes with pro-regime forces.
“We don’t have [a] specific number of casualties but approximately 12 civilian people [were] killed and more than 33 injured”.
There were a total of two Syrian Su-24 aircraft hitting Kurdish targets in four locations, the official said. The group has ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Turkey.
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These actions required an appropriate response from the army, the statement said.
