One Syrian man was reportedly killed in a clash between the National Defense Force (NDF), a pro- Syrian government militia, and the US troops near Qamishli city in the province of al-Hasakah in north-eastern Syria.
The state-run Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said on 12 February that the man killed by the US troops was “civilian” in the village of Khirbet Amo in al-Qamishli.
SANA added the US aircraft launched airstrikes on the village after clashes erupted between its residents and a US patrol.
The Global Coalition released a statement on Wednesday, 12 February, confirmed that the US-led coalition forces were conducting a patrol when they encountered a checkpoint controlled by the pro-government forces near the city of al-Qamishli in al-Hasakah province. The US troops issued several warnings to de-escalate the situation, but the pro-government forces did not respond to their alerts.
The statement clarified that the US patrol came under small arms fire (not specified the source of gunfire). In self-defense, coalition forces returned fire, without indicating if the shooting has left causalities among the ranks of the Syrian regime forces or civilians.
For his part, the correspondent of Russia Today (RT), Russia’s state-funded international television news network, in al-Hasakah, Mohammad Hassan, tweeted, that clashes erupted between the Syrian regime forces and a US patrol in the al-Qamishli countryside.
Hassan posted many photos revealing the clash that occurred between the Syrian regime forces and the US forces in Khirbet Amo village. The images also showed that there were Russian forces in the area.
The clash that occurred between the #American forces and the #Syrian army today in the village of Khirbet Amo in #Qamishli pic.twitter.com/nnWXnECkeo
— MOHAMMAD HASAN (@MHJournalist) February 12, 2020
The Kurdish Hawar news agency ANHA, which is linked to the Kurdish ” Autonomous Administration,” said that some fighters of the NDF, a pro-government militia, surrounded a US patrol in Khirbet Amo village and threw stones at their US armourd vehicles.
ANHA also added that members of the Syrian regime attacked its correspondent, who was near the US patrol and confiscated his camera in Khirbet Amo village.
On the other hand, some local news networks, including the “North-eastern Syria Network,” pointed out that the killed person is not a civilian, but rather a NDF fighter.
This is not the first time in which al-Hasakah province becomes a scene for the clashes between the Syrian regime forces and US patrols.
In December 2019, in al-Hasakah province, checkpoint controlled by the Syrian regime forces tried to prevent US vehicles from passing; however, the situation did not develop to the use of weapons between the two sides.
The countryside of Al-Hasakah has also been experiencing tensions between the US Armed Forces and the Russian Military Police, some of which developed into a review of their air force capabilities in the region; however, the last tension occurred on 4 February.
The US forces more than once prevented the Russian patrols from reaching oil field areas in al-Hasakah province.
The US considers that one of the most significant victories it achieved in the war against the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) was the control of the oil fields in eastern Syria, which were ISIS’ most important revenue source.
On 25 January, ANHA said that military “skirmishes” (ANHA did not determine the nature of these skirmishes) took place between the US and Russian forces at the entrance of Tel Tamer district, in rural al-Hasakah.
ANHA pointed out that near Tel Tamer junction, three Russian vehicles stopped to confront a US vehicle. Still, then the Russian vehicles went back to their military point located on a dairy farm in the region.