US forces target Assad checkpoint in northern Syria: Reports
Syrian state media reported on Monday that two US helicopters had attacked a Syrian army checkpoint in northeastern Syria, killing at least one soldier.
The incident happened shortly after a US patrol was prevented from passing by an army checkpoint close to the Kurdish-held city of Qamishl, the report said.
But in a statement, the US-led coalition, which is allied with the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces rebel group in the northeastern region, denied it had conducted an airstrike.
"After receiving safe passage from the pro-regime forces, the patrol came under small arms fire from individuals in the vicinity of the checkpoint. Coalition troops returned fire in self-defence. The coalition did not conduct an airstrike," the official statement read.
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The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which confirmed the incident, said Monday's strike was the first deadly incident of its kind in six months, in an area where the web of security responsibilities is complex.
Kurdish and US coalition forces, as well Russian and government troops, are all deployed in the area.
Meanwhile, a Turkish military vehicle was hit by a blast on Monday during a joint Russian-Turkish patrol in Syria’s northwest Idlib region, the latest such attack against forces manning Syria's east-west security corridor.
No Russian soldiers were hurt in the incident, a Russian news agency said. Turkish security officials later said that the attack had caused material damage but no casualties.
Last week, Russia said the joint military patrols in rebel-held Idlib, carried out along the M4 highway linking Syria’s east and west, had been suspended over increasing militant attacks in the area.
Russia and Turkey, which back opposing sides in Syria’s war, agreed in March to carry out the joint patrols after halting military activity in northwestern Idlib, which displaced nearly a million people and brought the two sides to the brink of confrontation.
Following the attack, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held a phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. The leaders vowed to step up anti-terror efforts in Syria and to make steps towards a sustainable ceasefire in Libya, where Moscow and Ankara also find themselves on opposing sides.
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