The U.S. military has been given the Rmeilan Air Base in the Syrian Kurdish region near Syria’s Iraqi and Turkish borders. The Kurdish YPG controlled the Syrian airbase but handed it over to a small team of U.S. Special Forces who have been supervising construction activities and fortifications at the newly founded base.

“Under a deal with the YPG, the U.S. was given control of the airport. The purpose of this deal is to back up the SDF, by providing weapons and an air base for U.S. warplanes,” an SDF spokesperson, Taj Kordsh, told Al-Jazeera