Wednesday’s dual-purpose operation puts Turkey on track for a confrontation with the US -backed Kurdish fighters in Syria, the most effective fighting force against IS in the area.
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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.
Syrian military sources and state media had said a cease-fire deal had been reached but the Kurds denied this.
A journalist working for AFP in Hasakeh said the city was quiet on Tuesday afternoon, with several stores reopening in the centre. Just days after Syrian warplanes bombed Kurdish positions in Hasakeh, Turkey announced that Assad could retain some role during a political transition in Syria, softening its previous insistence that he step down immediately.
Clashes erupted last week after Kurds demanded the NDF be dismantled in Hasakeh, and violence escalated on Thursday when regime warplanes bombarded Kurdish-held positions in the city for the first time.
The unprecedented strikes prompted the US-led coalition to scramble aircraft to protect its special operations forces helping the Kurdish fighters, warning the regime not to put the advisers on the ground at risk. Washington’s decision to scramble its fighter jets “was done as a measure to protect coalition forces”, Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis said.
Previous tension occurred between the Syrian forces and the Kurds, but both parties contained the situation to avoid further confrontations.
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.
“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 in the city said.
This time, the two Syrian Arab Air Force attack planes were met by American F-22 Raptors (most probably already operating in the same area providing Combat Air Patrol).
The encounter came one day after Syrian warplanes conducted airstrikes on Kurdish positions near the city of Hasakah, not far from where US special forces were operating.
Fighting between a pro-government militia and Kurdish forces since August 17 has left at least 43 people dead including 27 civilians, among them 11 children, according to the Observatory.
In new fighting yesterday, two mortar rounds fired from an IS-controlled area in Syria hit the southeastern Turkish town of Karkamis while three more hit the centre of the Turkish border town of Kilis, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.
According to the militant group, which is considered to be the Syrian affiliate of the PKK – which is considered as a terrorist group by Turkey, EU, NATO and the United States – the attack came after the YPG called on pro-regime forces to surrender.
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Sheikh Salih Obeid, an official in the YPG military relations office, thanked the Americans for their indirect support. “The factions are gathering in an area near the border [inside Turkey]”, the rebel said.
