On Thursday, US fighter jets were sent to intercept Syrian government warplanes that were bombing the position of Kurdish militia in the northeastern Syrian town of El-Hasakah, close to where US special forces are operating.
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Fresh strikes came as the Pentagon said that US-led coalition fighter jets scrambled to protect Kurdish forces working with American advisers in Syria as they were targeted by regime planes Thursday.
“We would continue to advise the Syrian regime to steer clear of those areas”, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook told reporters.
Political researcher Sulaiman al-Yusuf told Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper that it is not the first time that Syria witnesses such an escalation in conflicts and that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) attempt every now and then to expand in northern Syria and diminish the regime’s control there.
A Syrian military source told AFP the deal was struck between regime forces and Kurdish fighters after two days of mediation by regime ally Russian Federation.
Thousands of civilians in the city, which is a mix of Arabs and Kurds, including members of the Christian community, have fled to villages in the countryside as the fighting intensified, residents said.
The Pentagon said it has stepped up air patrols to maximize troops’ safety.
In September 2015, Russian Federation launched its own air offensive against the terrorists who were still wreaking havoc in Syria.
The source said PYD fighters have also seized a number of regime military checkpoints in central Al-Hasakah.
The regime and Kurdish forces share a common enemy in ISIS, which controls most of the Euphrates valley to the south, but there have been tensions between them in Hasakeh that have sometimes led to clashes.
In the end, the Syrian planes flew off without inflicting any casualties any of the Americans, though local reports said that several Kurds were killed and injured. The fact that special operations forces have moved to a “safe location” confirms that. “And the Syrian regime would be well advised not to do things that would place them at risk”. “Over the weekend they repeatedly scrambled fighter jets to chase off the Syrian planes, warning they were going to ‘defend themselves”. U.S. forces are training Kurds and Arabs to fight ISIS. More than 290,000 people have lost their lives since Syria’s conflict erupted in March 2011, and millions have been forced to flee their homes.
The U.S. has teamed with rebels to target militants affiliated with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, and has called for the removal of Syrian President of Bashar al-Assad, while Russian supports the regime.
Cook said the new warnings to Russian Federation and Syria were “consistent with what we’ve said in the past”.
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When asked if coalition forces were assisting the YPG in al-Hasakah, a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly, said that assistance was being given to the Syrian Democratic Forces.
