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Hasakeh (Syria), August 20
Syrian government warplanes took to the skies again on Saturday over the flashpoint northeastern city of Hasakeh, despite a US warning against new strikes that might endanger its military advisers.
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.
Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said the raids showed Damascus was starting to see the Kurdish attempt to consolidate territory in northern Syria as “a threat”. He pledged to play a “more active” in the next months in putting an end to the conflict.
Ankara sees Syrian Kurdish militia as an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) that has waged a bloody campaign against the Turkish state since 1984.
The unprecedented strikes prompted the US-led coalition to scramble aircraft to protect its special operations forces helping the Kurdish fighters.
It was apparently the first time the coalition scrambled jets in response to regime action, and possibly the closest call yet in terms of Syrian forces wounding American or coalition advisers.
Regime warplanes were in the air above Hasakeh throughout the night and into the morning on Saturday, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group.
It was unclear whether the aircraft had carried out bombing runs.
Fighting erupted between pro-government militia and the US-backed Kurdish forces on Wednesday and continued into Saturday morning, leaving a total of 41 people dead including 25 civilians, the Observatory said.
A delegation of Russian officials from the coastal Hmeimim military airport arrived in Qamishli to the north to hold talks between the two sides, a senior Syrian government source told AFP.
A journalist in Hasakeh said on Saturday afternoon that the clashes had abated. Around two-thirds of the city is controlled by Kurdish forces, while the rest is held by pro-government militia.
The regime and Kurdish forces share a common enemy in the Islamic State, but there have been tensions between them in Hasakeh.
The vitriol between the two sides escalated on Saturday, as the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) pledged to “protect areas from the terrorism of the regime”.
