Canada Global (Web News) US-led coalition battling terrorists resumed routine patrols in northeast Syria’s Kurdish-held territory on Friday, according to an AFP correspondent and a Kurdish military source.
Following Turkish attacks that started on Nov. 20 in Kurdish-held regions of Syria and Iraq in reaction to a deadly Istanbul bombing that Ankara blamed on Kurdish militants, patrols were scaled back.
Kurds denied being in charge.
As part of the conflict against jihadist relics of the Daesh group, hundreds of American soldiers are present in Syria.
According to the AFP correspondent, two four-vehicle patrols with US flags left a facility near Rmeilan in the Hasakah province independently.
Each convoy, moving in separate directions toward Syria’s borders, was accompanied by a vehicle from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
An AFP report cited a Kurdish military source as saying, “The international coalition in coordination with the Syrian Democratic Forces resumed its customary patrols in northeast Syria following a reduction due to Turkish strikes in the area.”
The Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which control the SDF but are viewed negatively in Ankara as a branch of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, were claimed to have been targeted by Turkiye (PKK).
The PKK is regarded as a terrorist organisation by Turkiye and its friends in the West.
According to the Kurdish military source, the SDF “has to concentrate on rejecting the Turkish threats and protecting its areas.”
Patrols were reportedly spotted on Friday in the further-south Deir Ezzor province, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor headquartered in Britain with a broad network of sources on the ground.
Ground operation in the partially independent Syrian Kurdish regions has also been threatened by Turkiye, which the US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Wednesday expressed strong opposition.
