YPG Kurds collaborate with Syria regime over Manbij

In the end, if this proves to the USA strategy in play, it puts the most pressure on Islamic State because it keeps Turkey in the game, as well as Syria, Russia and the U.S. and its allies, and it bypasses a potential all-out battle between the Kurds and the Turkish military and their proxies.

According to reports in the media, U.S. Special Forces are now gradually advancing on Manbij’s Ayn Dadat area.

Conflicts that lasted all Saturday coincided with a huge displacement to regions ruled by Manbij Military Council.

Operation Inherent Resolve, tweeted that the deployment was a “deliberate action” taken to assure that forces within the US-led coalition “deter aggression” and “keep the focus on defeating ISIS” elsewhere.

Dorrian added that the coalition has maintained a presence there since the city’s recapture from ISIS.

“Following our statement in relation to the border line between our forces and the Euphrates Shield, some press and broadcasting institutions do not reflect the reality and are making distorted claims”, said the council, which is affiliated to the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). Approximately 500 United States special forces are engaged in activities advising anti-ISIS fighters in Syria.

“We have made visible actions in deploying United States forces as part of the coalition in and around Manbij to reassure and deter – that’s to deter parties from attacking any other parties other than Daesh itself”, he added.

But the battle space has already proven congested, with Russian warplanes accidentally striking US-backed rebels as USA troops were some three miles away, according to Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, commander of the US-led counter-ISIS coalition.

OCHA said the almost 40,000 people displaced from the town fled north to areas controlled by other rebel forces, and that the “high contamination” of unexploded bombs and booby traps set by retreating jihadists was complicating efforts to return.

Regime forces have been advancing with Russian air support for some time, initially toward the IS-held city of al-Bab, over which Turkish forces and their FSA allies finally won control last week.

Prime Minister Binali Yildirim’s announcement came after Ankara on Thursday threatened to strike Syrian Kurdish forces – considered “terrorists” by Turkey – if they did not withdraw from the flashpoint town of Manbij. The Pentagon does not consider the two groups linked.

The Syrian military, meanwhile, has driven east of Aleppo to draw a front with the Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces south of al-Bab, blocking their route to Raqqa.

The U.S. had promised Turkey that the PYD/PKK would leave the area after capturing it, but this promise failed to materialize.

Talks are now underway between Ankara and Washington over Syria, where developments around the Kurdish-controlled town of Manbij have made some decisions affecting the US-Turkey relationship even more pressing. As they have in support of the Iraqi military in Mosul, U.S. fixed-wing aircraft and attack helicopters would actively back the ground force.