The Observatory said Kurdish forces had gained ground in the southern part of Hasaka.
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He declined to say which coalition forces tried to reach the Syrians.
Kurdish fighters on Monday captured the central prison in Hasakeh after fierce clashes with Syrian regime forces and are in control of 90 percent of the northern city, a monitor said.
Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said the US has increased combat air patrols in that area and has warned Syria that America will defend coalition troops. The Pentagon warned the Syrian regime yesterday it is prepared to shoot down planes threatening US-led coalition forces in northern Syria, but stopped short of declaring a no-fly zone. The coalition fighter jets were F-22 aircraft and came within 1 mile (1.6 km) of the Syrian planes.
In another escalation of Syria’s bloody conflict, warplanes from President Bashar al-Assad’s regime were bombarding the city of Hasakeh – targeting Kurdish forces that for months have worked closely with coalition military advisers helping local fighters combat the Islamic State group (IS, formerly known as ISIS or the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq).
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 Russians were contacted through a channel used for air safety, and they made clear the bombing was not being carried out by their jets, Davis said.
Secretary of State John Kerry and Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton have both said they support no-fly zones, but President Barack Obama is reluctant to commit resources and troops to enforce such a measure.
Syrian warplanes struck the Kurdish militias, which prompted the US-led coalition to scramble its own jets in order to cover American ground forces.
Davis said this is the first time USA planes have been scrambled in response to Syrian bombing, and that the coalition has never before seen the Assad regime take such action against the mainly Kurdish YPG.
In an indication of their reluctance to escalate further, pro-government media said on Saturday they had held preliminary peace talks.
The USAF F-22 RAPTOR Stealth Fighter is an fantastic flying machine as demonstrated her in this video. No U.S. troops were hurt, Capt. Jeff Davis said.
In a statement on Syrian state TV on Friday evening, the general command of the Syrian army accused Kurdish forces of “attacking state institutions, stealing oil and cotton, obstructing exams, kidnapping unarmed civilians and spreading chaos and instability”.
Rami Abdulrahman, Observatory director, said the fighting began after pro-government militiamen detained Kurdish youths, a step that had followed advances by Kurdish security forces toward government-held areas.
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Davis called the entire situation “very unusual” and said the Pentagon was “hard pressed” to think of another time when Syrian forces came so close to attacking the United States, even if that was not their intention.
