US forces are in the outskirts of the Syrian town of Manbij
On June 20, a spokesman for the US-led coalition, Colonel Sean Ryan, revealed during a press briefing that the Turkish military will not enter the northern Syrian city of Manbij. Col. Ryan added that the city will remain under the control of the coalition and the Manbij Military Council (MMC).
“They’re independent coordinations, they’re not joint patrols. I can tell you that Turkish soldiers will not go into Manbij … Manbij Military Council is in control of all the area, and so this will just be basically along the northern demarcation line is where the conflict will take to it,” Col. Ryan during a press briefing at the Pentagon, according to the Kurdish Rudaw TV.
The Turkish military began conducting patrols around Manbij a day earlier as a part of a Turkish-U.S. roadmap for stabilizing the city. Commenting on the development, Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said back then that the Turkish military will “run through” the northern city and claimed that it was cleared from Kurdish militias.
It’s unclear yet if the US-led coalition will alllow the Turkish military to enter Manbij later this year. Meanwhile, Turkey and the U.S. will supposedly work to purge the MMC from the supporters of the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) as a the second step of the same roadmap.
