Manbij reinforced, but not by YPG, Kurdish spokesman says

PanARMENIAN.Net - A spokesman for the autonomous Kurdish region in Syria said on Monday, August 29 that local military forces in the Syrian cities of Manbij and Jarablus are being reinforced, but not by Kurdish YPG militia, Reuters says.

The spokesman was responding to comments from regional security sources that YPG fighters appear to be reinforcing Manbij, captured this month from Islamic State, with weapons and personnel.

Manbij and Jarablus lie to the west of the Euphrates River, an area of northern Syria which Turkey and the United States have told the Kurdish YPG forces to withdraw from.

"There are reinforcements, but not by the YPG. Because the YPG are east of the Euphrates, not in Manbij or Jarablus," said Ibrahim Ibrahim, head of the Rojava Media Office. Rojava is an autonomous political federation in northern Syria run by Syrian Kurdish parties and their allies.

He did not identify the forces being sent to Manbij and Jarablus, but he said military councils in both cities are made up of local fighters and some Free Syrian Army rebel groups which are allied to the U.S.-backed anti-Islamic State alliance the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The Kurdish YPG militia, which makes up a large part of the SDF, said it had withdrawn east of the Euphrates in line with U.S. and Turkish demands after the SDF drove Islamic State out of Manbij.

Turkey, battling its own Kurdish insurgency, wants to prevent Syrian Kurdish forces taking complete control of Syria's northern border with Turkey.