Turkey conducts third patrolling mission around Syria’s Manbij

MANBIJ

The Turkish Armed Forces has conducted its third patrolling mission around the northern Syrian town of Manbij as part of a deal with the United States.

Turkish armored military vehicles patrolled around the Sacu River, which separates Manbij, controlled by the Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), and Jerablus, held by the Free Syrian Army since the Turkey-led “Operation Euphrates Shield,” state-run Anadolu Agency reported on June 22.

The Turkish army conducted its first patrolling mission around Manbij on June 18 and the second one on June 20 for the implementation of a road map for the withdrawal of the YPG, deemed as a terrorist group by Turkey, from Manbij.

The U.S. considers the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), dominated by YPG militants, an ally in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria.

“We said the terror organizations would be removed from there. They have started to be removed… The patrolling has started,” President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said at a rally in the northern province of Samsun on June 18.