Putin hosts Turkey’s Erdogan for Syria talks

Army Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the commander of US and coalition forces in Syria and Iraq, said last March 1 that within the previous two days Syrian regime forces had advanced to “essentially rifle-range or hand-grenade range” of USA -backed Syrian Arab Coalition fighters who are holding the area around Manbij.

The cooperation on Syria between Russian Federation and Turkey marked a sharp turnaround for the two nations, which have backed opposing sides in Syria, with Moscow siding with Assad and Turkey supporting his foes since the start of the Syrian conflict six years ago. The overlapping campaigns threaten to deal the extremists a double blow. A small part of the brigade is already training Iraqi forces in Iraq.

Meanwhile, the United States on Wednesday stepped up its deployment of troops to Syria to 900.

Turkey has been equally pointed in its insistence that the Kurds stay away from Raqqa, but recent battlefield gains for the SDF and the arrival of U.S. Marine artillery in the area might have tipped the argument away from Ankara. But the Kurds and Turkey have been clashing recently, as Turkey views Syrian Kurds as aligned with the PKK, a Kurdish separatist group in Turkey.

The YPG facilitated his entry into Syrian territory, where he joined the International Freedom Battalion, a unit of foreign fighters.

The spokeswoman for the Syrian Democratic Forces said on Friday that their numbers are increasing, with residents of areas newly liberated from IS joining the ethnically mixed force.

The YPG says it withdrew from Manbij after helping to capture it a year ago, leaving it in the control of allied Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) – an alliance that includes the YPG and Arab fighters. Turkey says no decision had been made yet on who would carry out the final assault while the US-led coalition said a possible Turkish role remained up for discussion.

But the preparations for the battle after Raqqa show that IS leaders are preparing for a protracted war against its enemies in Syria and Iraq, the United States daily reported.

Relations between Turkey and the USA deteriorated over American backing of the YPG, which has expanded its sphere of influence in northern Syria as it conquered vast tracks of land from Isis with the backing of American air power.

“We have information that the enemy is moving part of its leadership outside the city, as it is also digging tunnels under the ground”.

“We are not in a position right now to collaborate on the military level, but our political leaders will engage and try to find common ground”, Mattis said, but the USA and North Atlantic Treaty Organisation could only negotiate with Moscow “from a position of strength”. The meeting comes amid renewed Turkish threats to hit USA -backed Syrian Kurdish targets in the northern Syrian city of Manbij.

As the outside powers fighting in Syria step up the fight to crush Islamic State, the battle is laying bare their often-conflicting loyalties. “After the liberation of al-Bab from Daesh [ISIS] terrorists, Turkey’s new target in Syria is Manbij”.