The ceasefire between pro-Turkish fighters and Syrian Kurds in the northern Syrian city of Manbij has been extended. It is currently valid from Wednesday to the end of the week.
The agreement was brokered by the United States, US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said on Wednesday, adding that they would try to keep the ceasefire in place for as long as possible. TASR writes about it according to AFP.
The extension of the truce came at a time of growing fears that Turkey could attack the Kurdish-controlled Syrian city of Kobane, located near the Turkish border.
“We consider the concerns that Turkey has about the terrorist threat posed by the PKK to be very legitimate,” Miller said of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party. According to him, Ankara is also concerned about foreign fighters in Syria. “So we are discussing these concerns with them and trying to find a way forward,” he said at a press conference.
Miller added that the U.S. ultimately wants a Syrian government that includes all the different ethnic groups living in the country, without the existence of subnational militias or groups carrying “arms under their own banner.”
The US and Turkey, both NATO members, have supported Syrian rebels during Syria’s 13-year civil war. However, their interests clashed with one of the rebel factions, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
The SDF is a major component of the American-led coalition fighting Islamic State militants. However, the SDF is headed by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers to be the extended arm of the PKK militants, which has been fighting against the Turkish state for 40 years. Both Turkey and the US label the PKK as a terrorist organization.
Syrian rebels led by the once al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) launched an unexpected offensive against the regime of longtime Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in late November. They successfully completed it on December 8 by conquering Damascus. Assad fled to Moscow. The overthrow of his regime ended the 13-year civil war in Syria and the half-century rule of the Assad family.
