Alwaght- The Syrian army troops clashed on Sunday with the US-backed Kurdish militias in the east of the country, killing six alliance fighters, according to media reports.
State news agency SANA said the army seized control of four villages from the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in Deir Ez-Zor province.
The villages were occupied by SDF militias in Deir Ez-Zor province where Syrian forces are conducting an offensive against ISIS terrorists in the oil-rich region.
The latest clashes come amid reports that the US and its allies Britain and France have been setting up new outposts in northeastern Syria, despite a lack of permission from Damascus to have military presence in sovereign Syrian territory.
Officials from a coalition of Arab and Kurdish militias operating in northeastern Syria said Friday that they had been witnessing increased activity by Western forces in the region, adding that military forces from the US, Britain, and France had been setting up new bases around the city of Manbij.
Images of new US bases in Manbij have confirmed earlier plans by the Pentagon to expand US presence in Syria.
US military officials said, however, that the new deployments were not against Trump’s will for a pullout, saying they were necessary to adapt to the operational needs of the military on the ground.
The US has reportedly more than 2,000 troops stationed in eastern Syria, in addition to several thousand others in the Arab country’s north.
Apart from the troops on the ground, the US and a number of its allies have been bombarding what they say are ISIS positions inside Syria since September 2014, without any authorization from the Damascus government or the United Nations. The Syrian government blames the US and some of its European and Arab allies, especially Saudi Arabia, of supporting terrorists wrecking havoc inside the country since 2011.
