The U.S. military said its force came under fire, and that troops responded in self-defense. It said an investigation of the incident was underway.
“Coalition forces, conducting a patrol near Qamishli, Syria, encountered a checkpoint occupied by pro-Syrian regime forces,” coalition spokesman Myles Caggins said on February 12.
“The patrol came under small arms fire from unknown individuals. In self-defense, coalition troops returned fire,” Caggins said, without mentioning any casualties. “The situation was de-escalated and is under investigation. The coalition patrol returned to base.”
Syrian state news agency SANA said the man killed was a civilian and that he was among residents of a village east of the town of Qamishli who had gathered at the checkpoint and pelted the U.S. convoy with stones.
A monitoring group said it was not clear if the dead man was armed or not.
A video posted on state news agency SANA’s website showed angry men firing small arms at a convoy of several armored U.S. vehicles flying the U.S. flag. Some residents pelted the convoy with stones, while another dumped a bucket full of dirt on the back of one vehicle.
About 500 US troops are in northeastern Syria to assist the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance in the fight against the IS.
Meanwhile, SANA said that U.S. warplanes carried out an air strike on a Syrian village in rural Qamishli, near the border with Turkey, following the incident at the checkpoint. Turkey’s state-run Anadou Agency said two air strikes took place. Coalition spokesman Caggins denied any raid had taken place.
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