HASSAKEH, Syria/BEIRUT: Syrian Kurdish forces took near complete control of Hassakeh city Tuesday as a cease-fire ended a week of fighting with the government, while Turkey-backed Syrian rebels prepared an offensive against the Daesh (ISIS)-held town of Jarablus.

The Kurdish YPG militia, a critical part of the U.S.-backed campaign against Daesh, already controls swaths of northern Syria where Kurdish groups have established de facto autonomy since the start of the Syria war in 2011. Their growing sway has alarmed Turkey, which is fighting an insurgency among its own Kurdish minority.

The latest developments have thrust the town of Jarablus onto center stage in the ongoing Syrian civil war, putting U.S.-backed Kurdish forces on track for a confrontation with NATO ally Turkey over control of the town.

Syrian rebels backed by Turkey said they were in the final stages of preparing an assault from Turkish territory on Jarablus, aiming to preempt any YPG attempt to take it.

“We will give every kind of support to the Jarablus operation. This is important for our own security,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.

Hassakeh’s remaining government officials Tuesday were confined to a few buildings known as the security quarter, while the rest of the city was under Kurdish control. The Kurds held around 70 percent of Hassakeh prior to the latest fighting.

“Even if they [pro-government militias] keep a symbolic presence, it is a big defeat for the regime in Hassakeh,” said Rami Abdel-Rahman, director of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The terms of the cease-fire that came into effect at 2 p.m. Tuesday included the withdrawal of the Syrian army and allied militia from Hassakeh city, Kurdish officials said.

The YPG would hand over all seized areas to an affiliated Kurdish police force, the Asayish. Government policemen would be left to secure the one remaining area under state control.

Details reported by state TV included a prisoner swap, handing over the wounded and bodies of the dead, and opening the roads to Syrian army positions inside and outside the city.

YPG-controlled areas of northern Syria include an uninterrupted 400-km stretch of the Syrian-Turkish border from the eastern frontier with Iraq to the Euphrates River, and a pocket of territory in northwestern Syria.

Turkey is focused on preventing the YPG or its allies building on recent advances against Daesh by capturing the town of Jarablus. The U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces alliance, including the YPG, captured the city of Manbij, just south of Jarablus, from Daesh earlier this month.

Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmus told broadcaster NTV that northern Syria should not become the domain of one group alone and that a “secure zone,” an internationally policed buffer area Turkey has proposed in vain in the past, should be reconsidered.

Turkey has been shelling Daesh positions in Jarablus as part of an effort to help allied Syrian rebels secure it. Rebel sources say they have been mobilizing in Turkey, ready to cross into Jarablus.At least seven mortars landed in Karkamis, the Turkish town across from Jarablus, a Reuters witness said, while a drone hovered overhead and armored military vehicles patrolled the border.

A Syrian rebel with one of the Turkey-backed groups said the fighters were waiting for the signal to enter Jarablus. A second rebel said around 1,500 fighters were now gathered at a location in Turkey to take part. “The plan is to take Jarablus and expand south ... so as to abort any attempt by the Kurds to move north ... and so that Kurds don’t take more villages.”

The leader of the newly declared “Jarablus military council,” set up with the aim of mounting its own campaign to seize Jarablus with SDF support, was assassinated Monday, the Observatory said. A Kurdish official said two “agents of Turkey” had been detained over the killing.

In nearby Aleppo, heavy aerial and ground bombardments shook the countryside south of the city, as regime and allied forces launched an assault on the axis of the Technical Air Force Academy and the nearby strategic hill of Umm al-Qareh, SANA reported. The Hezbollah-linked Military Media Center said fierce clashes took place inside the academy.