Aerial close encounter between US, Syrian jets

American fighter jets were sent to the area where the Syrian jets conducted the airstrikes Thursday, but by the time the US planes arrived the Syrian forces had flown away.

“The Syrian regime would be well advised not to interfere with coalition forces or our partners”, he said, adding that the United States had the right to defend its troops. Additional combat air patrols have been sent to the area in order to protect the ground forces.

“We will ensure their safety and the Syrian regime would be well-advised not to do things that place them at risk”.

After warning Syria not to fly planes in the Hasakeh Province or risk getting them shot down by USA planes in the area, the Pentagon is struggling to convince reporters that there is some sort of distinction between this zone you can’t fly in and a “no-fly zone”.

Regime aircraft overflew the city on Sunday morning but without carrying out attacks, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said. According to the official, the Syrian bombers departed without further incident.

The truce between the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) and the Syrian army came into effect at 2 p.m. on Tuesday.

Indeed, Syrian government warplanes were in the air again Saturday over the flashpoint northeastern city of Hasakeh, despite a USA warning against new strikes that might endanger its military advisers, Agence France Presse reported.

“The Kurds now control 90 percent of the city”, said the Britain-based monitor, which relies on a network of sources on the ground.

For the first time in the nearly six-years of the Syrian war, Syrian regime forces deployed warplanes against the YPG.

In Friday’s aerial encounter, the USA pilots tried to contact the Syrian pilots by radio but there was no response.

The military forces fighting for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, including pro-government militias, will be allowed to leave. The YPG is at the heart of a USA -led campaign against ISIS in Syria, and controls swathes of the north where Kurdish groups have set up their own government.

Kurdish and regime forces have agreed to a ceasefire in Hasakah Tuesday, ending a week of clashes in the northern Syrian city they had jointly controlled.

Kurdish forces have asked the pro-government militias in the city to either surrender or face death, Kurdish forces and residents were quoted by Reuters as saying.

A government source in the city told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that the air strikes were “a message to the Kurds that they should stop this sort of demand that constitutes an affront to national sovereignty”. The rebels, Turkey-backed groups fighting under the banner of the Free Syrian Army, are expected to assault Jarablus from inside Turkey in the next few days, said the rebel official, who is familiar with the plans but declined to be identified. Just a month prior to that, the Obama administration announced that it was sending 250 more special operators to Syria, to bolster the force of about 50 that were already on the ground. There are also reports of retreat by regime forces ahead of Kurdish advances.

The targets were linked to the former Al-Nusra Front, now Fateh al-Sham Front, the ministry said.

Steadfast regime ally Russian Federation has also strengthened its relationship with Syria’s Kurds, and a Kurdish representative office recently opened in Moscow.