President Barack Obama has authorized the use of airstrikes against targets inside Syria in order to defend Western-backed fighters now operating on the ground, according to administration officials who spoke with journalists off the record over the weekend and later confirmed by the Pentagon.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the new authorization was approved Friday in order to defend “a new U.S.-backed fighting force in Syria if it is attacked by Syrian government forces or other groups” and now raises “the risk of the American military coming into direct conflict with the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.”

Citing a U.S. defense official, Bloomberg reports that Obama’s authorization was quickly followed by airstrikes in Northern Syria against the al-Nusrah Front, an al-Qaeda offshoot, which was attacking U.S-backed fighters—thought to be a militia called “Division 30″—whose purported goal is to defeat Islamic State. The U.S. provided close air support to protect the rebels and quash the attack, the official said.

Alistair Baskey, a White House National Security Council spokesman, declined to comment to the WSJ on the specifics of the new rules of engagement. However, he did say the administration has made clear it will “take the steps necessary to ensure that these forces could successfully carry out their mission.” U.S. support to the various militia forces trained by the Pentagon, he added, would include “defensive fire support to protect them.”

The WSJ reports:

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