After the start of the Russian military operation in Syria in the autumn 2015, Russia and the U.S. were said to be in competition to attract the dominant Syrian Kurds′ Democratic Union Party (PYD) [REF].
In April 2016 a France 24 documentary reported the presence of French, British, and US special forces cooperating with the Syrian Democratic Forces to coordinate airstrikes against ISIL during the al-Shaddadi offensive (2016) in February [REF].