US forces operating as part of the anti-ISIS Coalition have started installing observation posts on Syria's northern border with Turkey in a bid to separate their Kurdish allies from the Turkish Army.
“We are putting in observation posts in several locations up along the... northern Syrian border," Defense Secretary Jim Mattis told reporters.
"They will be very clearly marked locations day and night so that the Turks know where they're at," he added, noting that the decision was taken in close cooperation with Turkey.
Since 2016, Ankara has carried out two operations against Kurdish forces in Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported that ISIS launched on Thursday a large-scale offensive on positions of the US-backed forces in eastern Syria, as part of its pre-emptive strategy.
The Observatory said ISIS launched the offensive in the morning, while it tried to reach al-Tanak oil field, where the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) has a base with foreign military experts.
In response to the offensive, the US-led Coalition warplanes struck ISIS positions, killing 48 of them.
Meanwhile, social media sites loyal to the Kurds wrote on Thursday that an agreement was reached between the SDF and the US-led Coalition for Washington to protect its allies in an arrangement that should be renewed every two years.
The Observatory also said that Iran continued to expand its presence in border areas controlled by the Coalition.
The monitor added that Tehran went further in recruiting Syrians to enroll in its militia ranks in the countryside of Deir Ezzor.
“The Syrian Observatory monitored the continuation of recruiting operations of former fighters and residents from the countryside of Deir Ezzor in the ranks of Iranian militias similar to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard or the forces that belong to them,” the Observatory wrote on its website.
Sources told the monitor that Tehran was luring citizens to enlist in the ranks of Iran-backed militias operating in Deir Ezzor by offering them a monthly salary of $150.
