He said a small number of USA commandos were in the area training and advising Syrian Democratic Forces. “We’ve not seen the regime take this kind of action against the YPG before”.
Advertisement
The Syrian government bombers had been striking Kurdish positions near the city of Hasakah, where the US has been backing Kurdish forces in the fight against Islamic State.
Capt Davis told journalists that the United States had warned Syria via its communication channel with Russian Federation that it would defend coalition troops.
“This was done as a measure to protect coalition forces”, Captain Jeff Davis said.
Thursday’s close call prompted the US -led coalition to begin patrolling the airspace over Hasakah, and led to another incident Friday, in which two Syrian Su-24 bombers attempted to fly through the area but were met by coalition fighter jets, a USA defense official said.
Defence officials said the Syrian planes were leaving as the coalition aircraft arrived, meaning they did not engage in combat, but that the USA would not hesitate to defend its forces.
The regime and Kurdish forces share a common enemy in ISIS, which controls most of the Euphrates valley to the south, but there have been tensions between them in Hasakeh that have sometimes led to clashes.
“There were heavy clashes, artillery fire and rocket attacks throughout the night and ongoing in the morning”, Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP.
Residents of the northeastern Syrian city of Hassakeh took advantage on Friday of a lull in the fighting between Kurdish forces and Syrian government troops to flee to safer areas nearby, after fighting intensified the previous day with government warplanes bombing Kurdish-controlled positions in the city for the first time, activists and others said. “No weapons were fired by the coalition fighters”.
Thursday’s government raids were the first time the regime bombarded Kurdish positions from the air. He said the Syrian planes did not respond to efforts by ground forces to contact them.
The Britain-based monitor said thousands of inhabitants had begun to flee Hasakeh, where bread was running out and electricity supplies have been cut.
The encounter highlights a longstanding risk of US involvement in Syria: the prospect that a direct attack on USA forces by the Syrian government or its Russian allies could dramatically raise the stakes in the conflict for Washington and test the resolve of a White House with limited appetite for military intervention.
Additional combat air patrols have been sent to the area in order to protect the ground forces.
US special operations forces were based about six kilometers (nearly four miles) north of Hasakeh and reinforcements arrived Friday “from inside and outside Syria, accompanied by military helicopters”, Abdel Rahman said.
The Kurds, who control much of northeastern and northern Syria along the Turkish border where they have proclaimed an autonomous Kurdish region, recently demanded that the pro-government National Defense Forces disband in Hasakeh.
US President Barack Obama has authorised the deployment of special forces troops in Syria to support local militias in the fight against IS, but he has repeatedly ruled out sending ground forces to the conflict.
The Russian military says two of its ships have launched cruise missiles at targets in Syria from the eastern Mediterranean Sea.
Russia’s Defense Ministry says the Serpukhov and the Zeleny Dol corvettes launched three long-range Kalibr cruise missiles on Friday at Syria’s al-Qaida branch, formerly known as the Nusra Front.
Advertisement
More than 290,000 people have been killed since the conflict erupted in March 2011.
