U.S. forces and members of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) patrol the Kurdish-held town of Al-Darbasiyah in northeastern Syria bordering Turkey on November 25, 2018. Photo: AFP
QAMISHLO, Syrian Kurdistan,— The Kurdish authorities in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) in northeast Syrian said Tuesday their forces had started to withdraw from outposts along the Turkish border after a US-Turkish deal for a buffer zone there.
They said work had begun Saturday on “the first practical steps — in the Serêkaniye area (Ras al-Ain) — in removing some earth mounds and withdrawing a group of (Kurdish) People’s Protection Units and heavy weapons”.
The so-called “safe zone” agreed by Washington and Ankara earlier this month aims to create a buffer in Syrian Kurdistan between the Turkish border and the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), a group Ankara sees as “terrorists”.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday that Turkish ground troops will enter a planned safe zone in northern Syria “very soon,” after a joint operation centre with the United States opened at the weekend.
The Kurdish YPG military group — which has been a key US ally in Syria, said they would help implement the buffer zone in their Kurdish areas along the Turkish border.
The YPG has been a key partner to Washington in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria. The Kurdish YPG forces expelled the Islamic State from its last patch of territory in the eastern Syrian village of Baghouz in March 2019.
Washington has for years supported the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the fight against the Islamic State group in Syria, as part of an international anti-jihadist coalition dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). But U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly announced the pullout from Syria.
The Kurdish PYD and its powerful military wing YPG/YPJ, considered the most effective fighting force against IS in Syria and U.S. has provided them with arms. The YPG, which is the backbone of the SDF forces, has seized swathes of Syria from Islamic State.
Syrian Kurds have established an autonomous region in Syrian Kurdistan (Rojava) amid the country’s eight-year war.
In 2013, the Syrian Kurdish Democratic Union Party PYD — the political branch of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) — has established three autonomous Cantons of Jazeera, Kobani and Afrin and a Kurdish government across Syrian Kurdistan in 2013. On March 17, 2016, Kurdish and Arab authorities announced the creation of a “federal region” made up of those semi-autonomous regions in Syrian Kurdistan.
(With files from AFP | Reuters)
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