Syria regime, US-backed forces in deadly clashes

Amman : U.S-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said yesterday they expelled Syrian troops that briefly took control of a string of villages in oil rich areas east of the Euphrates river near the Iraqi border.

SDF forces led by the Kurdish YPG militia said they had waged a counter-attack against Syrian troops it said were backed by Russian forces, adding they were driven “far away” from four villages they had seized earlier in the day.

“Our forces regained the initiative,” their statement said.

It did not say if the U.S. coalition took part in the operation. Washington has a strong military presence in the area in eastern Syria which holds the bulk of the country’s oil and gas reserves, according to regional diplomatic sources.

A Western diplomatic source told Reuters U.S. coalition jets from bases in northern Syria hit the attacking forces which were believed to include Iranian-backed militias operating in Deir al Zor area.

Iranian-backed forces led by Iraqi and Lebanese Hezbolah Shi’ite militias played a major role in defeating the militants last year in eastern Syria.

A source in SDF also confirmed coalition forced had intervened without elaborating.

Earlier, the Syrian army said it had captured a string of villages east of the Euphrates near the border with Iraq held by Kurdish-led forces, state television said. It gave no explanation for the move.

The U.S.-backed proxy forces spearheaded by the YPG since last year control much of the territory east of the Euphrates in Deir al-Zor province as part of a major aerial and ground campaign led by the Pentagon that drove Islamic State militants from eastern Syria and their former de facto capital Raqqa.

The Russian-backed Syrian army has rarely clashed with SDF forces in its campaign against Islamic State and had kept away from their areas east of the Euphrates, focusing on regaining territory from the militants west of the river.

There have been elaborate “deconfliction lines” separating the coalition forces on the eastern side of the river from the Russian and Iranian backed forces on the western side to prevent clashes, U.S army officials and defence analysts say.

In February, U.S. airstrikes killed and wounded hundreds of pro-government forces including Russian paramilitary contractors advancing near the eastern city of Deir al-Zor towards one of the largest gas fields in the hands of U.S.-backed forces.

Before the announcement that the Syrian army had taken control of the villages, the SDF said they were engaged in heavy clashes with Syrian army troops on the outskirts of the village of Janin near the Euphrates.