SYRIAN communists led a demonstration in the country’s north-eastern Hasakah province on Wednesday calling for US occupying forces to leave, accusing them of committing war crimes.

Thousands took to the streets denouncing the imperialist power for attacking educational facilities and also took aim at the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) which controls the area.

They are accused of depriving local students of an education as they oppose the official curriculum of the Syrian Ministry of Education in what is a long-running dispute.

But the Syrian Communist Party (SCP) demanded an end to the US occupation, saying that it has been deliberately targeting university buildings during a recent battle with Isis in the province.

At least 200 jihadists attempted to spring more than 3,000 Isis militants held in al Sinaa prison in Hasakah’s Ghwayran district last month.

Their defeat led to calls by SDF commander Mazloum Abdi for an increase in US troop numbers to the region.

More recently, he insisted that there can be no political solution in the largely Kurdish Autonomous Area of North East Syria without Washington, a statement that has fuelled rumours of a serious division in the Kurdish movement.

The SCP was joined by students, teachers and civil society organisations along with Hasakah residents as they gathered at President Square under the banner: “Hands off our colleges, institutes and schools.”

“We have come together here to denounce the violations of US occupation forces and their allies against the entire Syrian territories, the latest of which was the deliberate targeting of buildings at al-Furat University campus which amounts to a war crime,” SCP spokesman Fawaz al-Dibs said.

The director of al-Furat University, Dr Jamal Abdullah, said that the US occupying forces must leave the country immediately, accusing them of supporting jihadist groups in Syria.

“We are sending a clear message to occupiers that neither their presence is desirable nor their claim of fighting terrorism is right, as they spearhead international terrorism,” he said

“The US forces are war criminals and must be expelled from Syrian lands without delay,” he said.

The US maintains around 700 troops in the country, according to official sources, and they are accused of plundering the country’s natural resources, particularly oil and wheat.

President Bashar al-Assad has called for them to leave and accuses  Washington of waging an economic war via the punitive Caesar Act sanctions which he says is designed to starve the Syrian people into submission.

The SDF was contacted for comment.