Posted on 04/01/2018 4:39:01 PM PDT by Texas Fossil
MANBIJ, SYRIA/WASHINGTON —
As part of the global coalition against Islamic State, the United States this week increased its special operations troops in the flashpoint town of Manbij in northern Syria.
In an email Thursday to VOA, Col. Thomas F. Veale, a U.S. military spokesperson and public affairs director for the coalition, said the recent deployment is a protection measure to ensure the safety of coalition troops in the area.
“Coalition forces are establishing a joint coordination mechanism for operations there, through the coalition's official relationship with the Manbij Military Council,” Veale said.
Manbij, in northern Syria, has recently become another major point of disagreement between the U.S. and its NATO ally, Turkey, over the presence of the Kurdish militant group People's Protection Units, also known as the YPG.
Turkey says the YPG is a terrorist organization, alleging the group is linked to Kurdish separatists inside Turkey, known as the PKK, which was designated a terror organization by both the U.S. and the EU. But the U.S. denies the connections between the PKK and the YPG and considers the YPG to be a key ally in the ongoing campaign against the Islamic State terror group in the region.
Turkey’s National Security Council, chaired by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in a statement on Wednesday, threatened that Ankara “will take action” if the YPG fighters do not withdraw immediately from the region.
“In the meeting, it is stated that the terrorists in Manbij should be removed from the area, otherwise Turkey will not hesitate to take initiative by itself as it did in other regions,” the statement read.
The Turkish military and its allied rebels this month captured the Kurdish town of Afrin in northwest Syria from the YPG in an operation code named Operation Olive Branch, that started on January 20.
The U.S. has said it is “deeply concerned” that the operation has displaced thousands of civilians and diverted attention from the more important task of eliminating Islamic State.
Officials of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) say a Turkish-led attack on Manbij could encourage thousands of fighters, especially those recruited from the town, to leave battlefields against Islamic State remnants in eastern Syria and move to the west to push back against the Turkish army and its allied rebels military offensive.
Najim Muhammad, the deputy commander of the Manbij Military Council, said the U.S.-led coalition has assured them it will protect the town.
“We are cooperating with the global coalition towards the security and safety of Manbij,” Muhammad told VOA. “Our coordination is very strong.”
Muhammad said he was concerned that the Free Syrian Army rebels are emboldened by the Turkish support and are amassing forces in northwest Manbij.
The Turkish pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper Tuesday reported that a force of 12,000 militants from the Free Syrian Army “are waiting for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to initiate the operation.”
Col. Veale of the U.S. military refused to disclose the number of U.S. special operations troops recently deployed to the area, but said “the level of force protection is commensurate to the threat.”
A VOA reporter in northern Syria who visited the site said the U.S. troops are stationed mostly across the Sajur river area in northwest Manbij, bordering near the Turkey-backed Syrian fighters.
The U.S. troops in Manbij came under direct attack by Turkish-backed rebels in August 2017. The Pentagon then said the U.S. troops returned fire but there were no casualties on either side.
Turkish news sources earlier today said we deployed 300 additional troops to Manbij area. There was too much Turkish propaganda in that article to post it.
And there were videos on Twitter about an hour ago that showed equipment movement from NE of this area.
I hope Erdogan has enough sense to leave this alone. If not, we will deal with it.
No worries, General Custer
We got this!
We may have delay removing our troops if this fool Erdogan harms one American solder. Message to Turkey’s military. You eliminate Erdogan or we eliminate you.
The Iranians and/or Turks are deploying their road side bombs now. I expect this will get messy quick for the US.
Not jumping to conclusion yet. We will see.
Trump’s statement may have been a head fake. We will see.
Custer did not fare well.
Our military is prepared to defend themselves. We have the air support too.
This is not going to end well
We are still making promises to the kurds that we cannot keep
Meanwhile virtually every Syrian group of any ideology is starting to coalesce around one common enemy - us
They call us the invaders
We cannot occupy eastern Syria with several thousand troops
We will not be pulled into ramping up now that ISIS is scattered
However we have now created ripe conditions for ISIS to reconstitute
Erdogan will not object
Imo The best option would be to pull US troops back into Iraq and cooperate with the Iraqi army and let the Syrian army and Russians expand IS sweeps in Syria ( dont see it happening though)
Let Russia deal with Erdogan in working out a plan that stabilizes Assad’s control over as much territory as possible
Face it- Kurdistan is dead - for now
We are not going to war against Turkey and we have lost a lot of political influence there
Recent report inducated the US and UK advisors killed were targetted by FSA
These were the guys we trained and armed - once upon a time
Another one? Harassment
” Syrian People’s Resistance Group”
Unlike Afrin Manbij is defensible. Turkey would have a long flank to defend if it heads East.
Turkey now has all Aleppo Province to return refugees to, But that it is going to be a tinderbox of refugees and terrorists.
“However we have now created ripe conditions”
No, “WE” did not.
And the reason we’re in Syria is because?
“These were the guys we trained and armed - once upon a time”
The FSA today is not the same as the one Obama and McCain was involved in. Besides, Erdogan has added some ISIS and Nusra.
We did fine, supporting the SDF. They are not all occupied in Efrin. (Yes, some of them are still smacking Turkey)
This will be OK.
Almasdar is total SAA propaganda outlet, based in Damascus.
Yes. The MMC is in Manbij and they are good troops. Experienced and well run.
Reasib? ISIS.
Have you forgotten?
And Afrin would have also been defensible if we could have given the SDF air support. And if another NATO “ally” had not attacked them.
But that is what happened. And it cost 1,500 good lives. Many at the hands of ISIS that we were fighting before Turkey employed them.
Looks like a couple of mortars were fired at a US brigade near Raqqa...that could be anyone.
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