With US departure, Syria’s Manbij braces for upheaval

MANBIJ: The city of Manbij has switched control more than most places in Syria’s civil war.With U.S. troops set to leave after President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw them, residents fear others will rush to fill the vacuum, causing more upheaval: Syrian government forces have deployed nearby while Turkey is threatening its own assault on the city.U.S. forces have underpinned stability in Manbij since Islamic State’s defeat here in 2016.Some 30 km (20 miles) from the Turkish border, it occupies a critical spot in the map of the Syrian conflict, near the junction of three separate blocks of territory that form spheres of Russian, Turkish and - for now - U.S. influence.While U.S. forces have yet to leave, the consequences of Trump’s decision are already playing out in Manbij.Russian-backed Syrian government forces entered the outskirts on Friday for the first time in years at the invitation of Kurdish YPG militia who fear the U.S. departure could open the way for a Turkish attack. “We have been living in fear for the past few days and we don’t know what is happening and who will enter the city,” said Ismail Shaalan, 41, who has lived in Manbij since fleeing fighting in the Aleppo area two years ago.“Is it the Turks or the Syrians?” Trump has said the withdrawal will be slow. U.S.-led coalition jets and attack helicopters could still be seen in the skies over Manbij on Saturday.Local fighters with the U.S.-backed militia that has held the city since 2016, the Manbij Military Council, were conducting their normal patrols on Saturday wearing red berets and armed with AK-47 assault rifles.“We survived the war. We will never see worse than Daesh,” he said, referring to Islamic State, said Abu Hamze, 43, a father of five. But he too is worried: “We are scared. The situation is confusing.” Manbij has been held by SDF-allied forces since then, angering neighboring Turkey which views the influence wielded by the YPG in northern Syria as a national security threat.Turkish and U.S. forces have been conducting joint patrols near Manbij since November, agreed as part of U.S. efforts to satisfy Turkish concerns.Top Republican to urge Trump to rethink Syria pullout: A senior Republican senator said Sunday that he would be meeting with US President Donald Trump to urge him to reconsider his plan to withdraw all US troops from Syria and many from Afghanistan.“If we leave (Syria) now, the Kurds will get slaughtered,” Lindsey Graham said on ABC’s “This Week,” referring to the Kurdish troops allied with US forces in Syria. “I’m going to ask the president to do something that President Obama would never do: reconsider.” He did not say when the two would be meeting. Graham, who sits on the Armed Services committee and has frequently visited US troops in conflict regions, said Trump was “frustrated” by the limited options available in Syria. “I’m going to talk to him,” Graham said. “The president is reconsidering how we would do this. He’s frustrated.“I get it. We’re not the policemen of the world here. We’re fighting a war against ISIS,” he said, using an alternative name for the Islamic State group. “They’re not defeated in Syria. I’m asking the president to make sure we have troops there to protect us.”

from The News International - World http://bit.ly/2LFFjqr