A city in northeastern Syria has become a flashpoint in the country's civil war as Syrian warplanes attacked Kurdish forces yesterday, and the United States responded by sending its own aircraft to protect U.S. coalition forces in the area, the VOA (Voice of America) News website reports today (August 19, 2016).
Thousands of civilians have been fleeing the Kurdish-majority city of Hasaka, since the Syrian airstrikes started yesterday, which witnesses said have killed dozens of people.
The airstrikes mark the first time since the start of Syria's civil war in 2011 that Syrian government warplanes targeted a majority Kurdish enclave. They also appear to mark a break between Syrian government troops and the U.S.-backed Kurdish forces that had been working loosely together against Islamic State (IS) fighters in the city since 2014.
"They [warplanes] are targeting specific areas to weaken local Kurdish forces," Hasaka resident Aziz Abe told VOA.
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