According to USA officials, the American forces were moved to a safer position after the attack, but weren’t pulled entirely from the theater.
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The American aircraft are part of the beefed-up USA air combat patrols in the area that the Pentagon had announced following Thursday’s attack.
Ankara, which its fighting militants from its own Kurdish minority, has begun to step up efforts to curb the growth of Kurdish influence in Syria, where it backs Sunni Arab groups that are also hostile to the YPG. “No weapons were fired by the coalition fighters”.
“Our warning to the Syrians is the same that we’ve had for some time, that we’re going to defend our forces and they would be advised not to fly in areas where our forces have been operating”, Cook said.
Kurdish forces have asked the pro-government militias in the city to either surrender or face death, Kurdish forces and residents were quoted by Reuters as saying.
Syrian Kurdish authorities evacuated thousands of civilians from Kurdish areas of a city in northeastern Syria on a second day of government air strikes on Friday, a spokesman for the Kurdish YPG militia said.
Fierce fighting broke out since Wednesday between pro-regime forces and Kurdish Police (Assayech) after mutual accusations of arrests, making 39 dead, according to Syrian Observatory of Human Rights (OSDH).
United States forces then contacted Russia, ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, which has been some areas in Syria for nearly a year, but the Russians have stressed that it was in the case Syrian planes which were conducting the attack.
There are about 300 USA special operators and support troops on the ground in Syria, where they are serving as trainers and advisers for the local partner forces fighting the Islamic State group.
Fighting escalated Thursday when regime warplanes bombarded YPG-held positions in the city for the first time. The unprecedented strikes prompted the USA -led coalition to scramble aircraft to protect its special operations forces helping the Kurdish fighters.
Clashes continued Monday between Syrian government forces and Kurdish fighters in the northeastern city of Hasaka amid reports of an ongoing effort by Russian Federation to reach a cease-fire agreement, activists and residents said.
The YPG, or People’s Protection Units, has meanwhile prioritized carving out and safeguarding predominantly Kurdish regions of northern Syria.
A source in the city told Xinhua that the Kurds actually took control of several government positions, in their bid to shrink the government presence in that area to a small security zone.
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“The same truce, with similar terms, was agreed two days ago, but hours later, the deal collapsed”, said Ahelbarra, who added that there was no mention of the latest reported ceasefire on Kurdish media. In Syria’s besieged city of Aleppo, more than 275,000 people have been cut off from food, water and medical supplies recently.
