The airstrikes mark the first time since the start of the country’s civil war in 2011 that Syrian government warplanes targeted a majority Kurdish enclave.
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After the fighting broke out this week, government warplanes bombed Kurdish-held areas of Hasaka, one of two cities in the largely Kurdish-held northeast where the government has maintained enclaves.
Two Syrian Su-24 warplanes flying near a part of northeastern Syria where US special forces are working on the ground with Kurdish allies were approached and “encouraged” to leave by a pair of USA fighter jets on Friday, according to NBC News.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the raids showed Damascus was starting to see the Kurdish attempt to consolidate territory in northern Syria as “a threat”.
Yildirim said Turkey would play a “more active” role in the next months in Syria, without giving details.
The Kurdish YPG militia and Asayish paramilitary police – armed wings of the Democratic Union party (PYD), sister organisation of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) – claimed to have captured several districts from Syrian army reservists.
The battle over Hasaka marked the most violent confrontation between the YPG and Damascus in more than five years of civil war, with the Syrian air force used against the US -backed Kurdish forces for the first time last week. It was apparently the first time the coalition scrambled jets in response to regime action, and possibly the closest call yet in terms of Syrian forces wounding American or coalition advisers.
It was not immediately clear whether the aircraft had carried out any bombing runs as there were heavy artillery exchanges on the ground.
No US forces were wounded during the Syrian bombing, according to officials. A journalist in Hasakeh said on Saturday afternoon that the clashes had abated.
Kurdish influence spread further this month when a USA -backed alliance of militias including the YPG captured the city of Manbij from Islamic State, west of the Euphrates.
The three point agreement calls for a “halt to all hostilities and the return to regime forces of any positions seized by Kurdish fighters” since Wednesday, according to the military source. The YPG militia had already seized Ghwairan, the only major Arab neighbourhood under government control.
Navy Capt. Jeff Davis on Friday said that the USA has warned Syria that America will defend coalition troops.
The additional US combat air patrols will monitor the situation and provide assistance to coalition forces if needed, but are not enforcing any kind of no-fly zone, Davis said. The Observatory said thousands of inhabitants had begun to flee the city, where bread was running out and electricity has been cut.
It said the government had rejected a Kurdish demand for pro-regime militiamen to withdraw from Hasakeh, instead proposing that both sides disarm.
Stephen O’Brien, the United Nation’s under secretary for general humanitarian affairs, told the U.N. Security Council that while a temporary cease-fire by Russian forces proposed last week was welcomed, there have been no assurances from other militants.
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Also on Friday, Russian warships in the Mediterranean Sea fired cruise missiles at targets near Aleppo, a further sign of Moscow’s broadening military effort in Syria.
