Syria army enters Kurdish-held Manbij to avert Turkish offensive

Syria’s army says it has entered the flashpoint city of Manbij, according to state media, after the country’s main Kurdish armed group invited government forces to take control of the northern area and protect it from a threatened Turkish offensive.

State-run Sana news agency said the army raised Syria’s flag in Manbij on Friday. 

It also pledged to guarantee “full security for all Syrian citizens and others present in the area”, according to Saba.

However, Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow, reporting from Gaziantep on the Turkish border, said residents of Manbij dispute the Syrian army’s claim. 

“Manbij residents who we spoke to have said that they have not seen any sign of Syrian forces in their city but what we know is that Syrian government troops have already been on the outskirts of the city, where they were part of an international coalition that is fighting remnants of ISIL,” he said. 

The military declaration came moments after the People’s Protection Unit, or YPG, made an appeal to President Bashar al-Assad’s government to prevent a “Turkish invasion”.

We invite the Syrian government forces to assert control over the areas our forces have withdrawn from, in particularly Manbij, and to protect these areas against a Turkish invasion.https://t.co/OAkymO8s9Q

— Rojava Defense Units | YPG (@DefenseUnits) December 28, 2018

Turkey, which views the YPG as a “terrorist” group, had threatened a military operation against Manbij to remove the Kurdish-led forces there. Turkey and its allied fighters have been amassing troops around the city in recent days.

Our correspondent said the YPG’s appeal was a “tactic by its fighters to avoid confrontation with the Turkish forces who they of course know they are no match for”.

The Turkish threats triggered the US announcement it would withdraw troops from Syria. A timetable for the withdrawal has not yet been made public.

But the surprise US decision rattled allies and the US Syrian Kurdish partners, who scrambled to find new allies to protect their Kurdish-administered areas in northern Syria.

Assad’s government has said it welcomes the Kurdish group returning under its authority.

But government officials have stated they will not consider an autonomous area, a main demand for the Kurds.

There was no immediate response from Turkey or the US.

Russia welcomed the Syrian army’s entry into Manbij.

“Of course, this will help in stabilising the situation. The enlargement of the zone under the control of government forces… is without doubt a positive trend,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

Sami Nader, director of the Levant Institute for Strategic Studies, said Syrian troop entry into Manbij, if confirmed, was a “significant development”. 

“It is a solution all regional powers can accept because Turkey doesn’t want US troops in Manbij, while the other players don’t want Turkish troops there,” he told Al Jazeera from Beirut. 

SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies