The US had to give the Kurdish-led SDF an ultimatum to withdraw from the northern Syrian city of Manbij and cede it to the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army (SNA), Al-Monitor reported on Wednesday.
According to the report, the US brokered a ceasefire deal between the SDF and the SNA that involved the Kurds withdrawing to areas east of the Euphrates River. The SDF was violating the agreement by maintaining a hold on Manbij and was encircled by SNA fighters who were backed by Turkish air power. SNA fighters were also advancing east of the Euphrates.
The report said US officials were “exasperated” by the SDF’s refusal to head to the east of the river. The US threatened that the US military would no longer protect the SDF if it didn’t comply, prompting the Kurdish force to withdraw and cede the city to the SNA, which is mainly comprised of Sunni Muslim groups.
A US official said that during the battle on Monday, the SDF shot down a US MQ-9 Reaper drone after mistaking it for a Turkish drone.
Turkey has stepped up strikes on the US-backed Kurds in northern Syria following the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Ankara played a key role in the regime change as it reportedly gave the green light for the offensive launched by the al-Qaeda offshoot Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which has taken Damascus.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is headed to Ankara on Friday as the US is looking to limit the Turkish-backed offensive against the Kurds. The US has about 900 troops occupying Kurdish-controlled areas of eastern Syria, which have provided support to the SDF in recent fighting against the now-deposed government.
Turkey has always been unhappy about the US support for the SDF since it considers the group a wing of the PKK, a Kurdish militant group both Turkey and the US have labeled a terrorist organization. James Jeffrey, who served as a US special envoy to Syria, acknowledged the SDF was the Syrian wing of the PKK in an interview with PBS in 2018.
Jeffrey made the comments in the context of Turkish officials complaining about the US support for the SDF, saying that he would argue the US could complain about Turkey’s support for the al-Qaeda-linked HTS. “I used this example the last time I was talking to very senior Turks, when they were bitching about this relationship we have with the SDF, which we renamed from the YPG [Kurdish People’s Protection Unit], which is a Syrian wing of the PKK,” he said.
Jeffrey continued, “I said, ‘It’s just like you in Idlib. We want you to be in Idlib, but you can’t be in Idlib without having a platform, and that platform is largely HTS. Now, unlike the SDF, HTS is a UN-designated official terrorist organization. Have I ever or has any American official ever complained to you about what you’re doing there with HTS? No.'”
