Washington regards the Kurdish-led militia that controls most of the northeast as the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria and the head of US Central Command General Joseph Votel made a secret visit on Saturday to confer with US military advisers working with them.
A CENTCOM spokesman declined to give details of the visit, saying only that Votel had visited several location inside Syria on the highest-ranking visit to the country since the 2011 outbreak of the civil war.
Two IS suicide bombers struck the centre of Qamishli, a mainly Kurdish city that is the de facto
capital of the swathes of northern Syria.