The Pentagon said no coalition casualties were reported in Thursday’s strikes by two Syrian SU-24s, and United States special operations advisers had been moved to a safe location.
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In one very well-known episode, F-22 stealth jets providing HVAAE (High Value Air Asset Escort) to a US Predator flew under the Iranian F-4E Phantoms that had intercepted the drone then pulled up on their left wing and then called them and radioed a famous “you really ought to go home” that allegedly scared the Iranian pilots off saving the drone.
In the end, the Syrian planes flew off without inflicting any casualties any of the Americans, though local reports said that several Kurds were killed and injured.
Pentagon spokesman Captain Jeff Davis warned that “the Syrian regime would be well-advised not to do things that place them (coalition forces) at risk”.
Coalition and USA special operations forces were in the area at the time, but no one was affected by the airstrikes and they are safe, he added.
Nasser Haj Mansour of the predominantly Kurdish Syria Democratic Forces said Syrian government warplanes and helicopters launched more attacks on areas controlled by Kurdish fighters on Friday.
Hassakeh is largely under the control of a Kurdish militia, the YPG.
Syrian government’s warplanes bombed Kurdish areas of Hassakeh for the second day running on Friday. “The presence of the aircraft effectively encouraged the Syrian aircraft to depart the airspace, without further incident”. “The Syrian Regime would be well advised not to interfere with Coalition forces or its partners”.
The Hawar News Agency says fighters loyal to the Kurdish political movement are engaged with pro-government fighters in the city. The Beirut-based pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen TV quoted an unnamed Syrian military official as saying that the clashes broke out anew after YPG fighters attacked military positions in the city on Friday.
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. In another escalation of the five-year war, regime planes this week bombarded positions held by US-backed Kurdish forces in the city fighting the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group. Is the USA committing itself to a no-fly-zone over Rojava, the area of Syria on which the YPG wants to erect a mini-state?
President Barack Obama has authorized the deployment of up to 300 US special operations forces to Syria to work with the Syrian Democratic Forces. Taken together, the new military moves appeared to be a demonstration that Russian Federation has the ability to strike from virtually all directions in a region where it has been reasserting its power – from Iran, from warships in the Caspian Sea, from its base in the Syrian coastal province of Latakia and now from the Mediterranean.
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The upsurge in fighting and airstrikes in and around the city, split between government-held west and rebel-held eastern sectors, has prompted growing worldwide concern, galvanized by pictures Thursday of a dazed, bloodied boy.
