US fighter jets scrambled to eastern Syria this week when Syrian bombers attacked in the vicinity of American and coalition Special Operations forces working with Kurdish and Arab opposition fighters, the Pentagon said Friday.
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Pentagon spokesman Capt Jeff Davis said that as far as he was aware, Thursday’s mission was the first time that coalition aircraft had been scrambled to respond to an incident involving Syrian government aerial bombardment.
Saying the US will do what is needed to protect coalition forces, Davis added, “The Syrian regime would be well advised not to do things that would place them at risk”.
Additional American air patrols have been flying over the Hasakah area today to assure the safety of American personnel on the ground.
Saying the US will do what is needed to protect coalition forces, Davis added, “The Syrian regime would be well advised not to do things that would place them at risk”.
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 United States forces.
Britain’s United Nations ambassador says Russian Federation must follow up its announcement of support for weekly 48-hour cease-fires to allow humanitarian aid to be delivered to the embattled Syrian city of Aleppo with action to make this happen. In May, a series of photos emerged of US commandos patrolling in the village of Fatisah north of the group’s de facto capital of Raqqa.
Elsewhere in Syria on Friday, two Russian warships operating in the Mediterranean Sea fired volleys of Kalibr cruise missiles at Nusra Front targets in Syria. He says the warning was relayed through the Russians.
The majority of the area around Hasakah is held by Syrian Kurdish forces fighting ISIS, but there remain pockets of Syrian regime forces in the area.
A joint team of elite American special operations troops and Kurdish fighters working together on the ground in northern Syria came under fire from Syrian Su-24 warplanes, prompting urgent calls for help. The Americans at that point made it clear through the Russians that the United States would “take whatever action is necessary” to defend US forces on the ground if the strikes continued.
“Our people are expecting the anti-IS global coalition to stop Syrian warplanes from bombing them in Hasaka, because this is part of that war on terrorism”, said Nasir Hajji Mansur, a comannder with the SDF. At least thirteen people, including children and women, were killed as a result of shelling by the army on Kurdish-controlled areas in the city, the monitor said.
It said clashes were also taking place in a number of places around Hasaka.
Fighting in Hasakeh comes less than a week after the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), an umbrella of Arab and Kurdish militia, retook the strategic city of Manbij from the “Islamic State”.
“We are fighting mercenaries”, Haj Mansour said, in reference to pro-government gunmen fighting on the side of President Bashar Assad’s forces.
Turkey considers PYD and its military wing YPG to be terrorist groups, and affiliates of the PKK separatist terrorist organization.
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It was not immediately clear how many are left, if any, in northern Syria.
