BEIRUT — Clashes between Turkey’s military and Kurdish-backed Syrian forces subsided Tuesday evening after days of fighting between the two had frustrated efforts by a US-led coalition to drive the Islamic State group from northern Syria.
Western officials had expressed alarm that the fighting between the two sides, both backed by the United States in Syria’s 5-year-old civil war, has diverted their attention from the fight against the extremist group.
In a speech Tuesday, French President Francois Hollande criticized Turkey for targeting Kurdish and Kurdish-backed fighters in Syria, while a top US general ordered the sides to stop fighting one another and focus instead on the Islamic State.
General Joseph Votel, commander of the US Central Command, told Pentagon reporters that the United States was striving to separate the parties.
The Kurdish-backed Jarablus Military Council said in a statement it had agreed to a cease-fire with the Turkish military in a disputed area in north central Syria after lengthy consultations with the coalition.
The Pentagon denied reports it was monitoring a cease-fire but said Turkish forces had moved to the west, while Kurdish forces had moved east of the Euphrates River, per the insistence of Turkish and US authorities.
‘‘We welcome the calm between the Turkish military and other counter-ISIL forces in Syria,’’ Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook said. ‘‘We encourage these moves as a way to prevent further hostilities and loss of life between all counter-ISIL forces operating in the area.’’
Cook said the coalition is establishing communication channels ‘‘for de-conflicting operations and maneuvers in this crowded battlespace.’’
The Britain-based Syrian Observer for Human Rights monitoring group, which relies on contacts inside Syria, said a tense calm had prevailed in the area Tuesday evening.
Turkey’s military said three of its soldiers were wounded in northern Syria when their tank was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade. A statement said ‘‘terrorists’’ fired the rocket west of Jarablus, where Turkish troops have been fighting Kurdish-led forces after Turkey’s Aug. 24 incursion into Syria.
One Turkish soldier was killed and three were wounded in fighting Saturday.
The tough talk from Washington and Paris came as a spokesman for the Kurdish-led forces in Syria said Islamic State militants carried out a two-pronged attack on villages south and west of the former militant stronghold of Manbij, taking advantage of the clashes between his forces and Turkey-backed Syrian rebels.
In Paris, Hollande said ‘‘multiple, contradictory interventions carry the risk of a general inflammation’’ of the fighting that has devastated Syria.
He said he could understand Turkey’s concern about protecting its borders and fighting the Islamic State group, but he criticized Ankara’s actions against Kurdish rebels allied with the coalition fighting the extremists. France is part of the coalition.
Hollande also urged Russia to cooperate with the coalition and said he would invite President Vladimir Putin to France in October, noting Moscow should be ‘‘a player in negotiations, not a protagonist in the action.’’
The Kurdish-led forces seized Manbij from the Islamic State earlier this month after a 10-week campaign.
Last week, Turkey sent its troops and warplanes to back Syrian rebels in their advance on Jarablus, a town near the Turkish border and the next Islamic State stronghold after Manbij. That prompted clashes between the two US-allies — Syrian rebels and Kurdish fighters. Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish forces an offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers Party, or PKK, a domestic group it deems a terrorist organization.
