Davis said Friday that two Syrian SU-24 attack planes attacked Kurdish forces undergoing training with US Special Operations troops around the northeastern city of Hasakeh, but they had left by the time the American jets arrived.
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The Pentagon issued a stern warning to Russia and Syria that it will do whatever is necessary to protect USA forces and partners fighting Islamic State, even if that means shooting down Russian and Syrian aircraft.
The fighting this week in Hasakah marks the most violent confrontation between the YPG and Damascus in more than five years of civil war.
Syrian Kurdish and government forces have reportedly agreed a ceasefire, which has already come into effect.
“It (the truce) is a defeat for the regime and a victory for the Kurds because technically now they control the province of Hasakeh with a symbolic regime presence”, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said. The U.S. -backed Syria Democratic Forces alliance (SDF), including the YPG, captured the city of Manbij, just south of Jarablus, from Islamic State earlier this month.
It included a “halt to all hostilities and the return to regime forces of any positions seized by Kurdish fighters” since Wednesday, the source said.
He described the outcome as a “step forward” for the Kurdish groups that want a federal solution to the Syrian war to safeguard their autonomy.
YPG-controlled areas of northern Syria include an uninterrupted 400 km (250 mile) stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border from the eastern frontier with Iraq to the Euphrates river, and a pocket of territory in northwestern Syria.
When asked about Russia, Cook said Washington would also do the same with the Russian jest, which have been striking Daesh targets in Syria at the Syrian government’s request since previous year.
Kurdish influence spread further this month when a US -backed alliance of militias including the YPG captured the city of Manbij from Islamic State, west of the Euphrates.
A Syrian rebel with one of the Turkey-backed groups said the fighters were waiting for the signal to enter Jarablus. “The plan is to take Jarablus and expand south.so as to abort any attempt by the Kurds to move north. and so that Kurds don’t take more villages”, he said. “To all the elements of the regime and its militias who are besieged in the city, you are targeted by our units”, leaflets distributed by the YPG said.
It said the Kurds and regime would also exchange any detainees or wounded, and reopen roads blocked off during fighting.
The Arab rebel groups due to take part in the Jarablus operation are themselves hostile to the YPG, having fought with it further west near Aleppo this year.
When asked if the policy constituted the US placing a no-fly zone over its forces and partners, Cook replied by saying “you can label it what you want”.
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The leader of the newly declared “Jarablus military council”, set with the aim of mounting its own campaign to seize Jarablus with SDF support, was assassinated on Monday, the Observatory said. A Kurdish official said two “agents of Turkey” had been detained over the killing.
