Training to start for joint US-Turkish patrols near Syria’s Manbij

“We'll have to get it set up and normal -- everybody there and get them organized. But that's all part of getting it rolling."

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – On Thursday, the US Secretary of Defense announced that Turkey and the United States are preparing for joint patrols near the Syrian city of Manbij after the Turkish army said it had been patrolling independently there since mid-June. 

“On the training for the -- with the combined patrols, it is starting shortly in Turkey. The gear is in. The officers are in. And it will start shortly,” US Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis told reporters on Thursday aboard a US aircraft.

“We'll have to get it set up and normal -- everybody there and get them organized.  But that's all part of getting it rolling,” he said, adding that the process would begin within 72 hours.

Earlier, in a press conference on Tuesday, Maj. Gen. Felix Gedney, Deputy Commander, Strategy, and Support for the US-led coalition against the Islamic State (IS) also told reporters that training for joint patrolling would start soon.

“So, the situation in Manbij is that the US and Turkish forces have been conducting independent coordinated patrols along the borders of Manbij and these have been very successful. And that's become a routine now,” he said.

“Training will soon commence for joint patrolling. That'll start very soon, and we'll move to do joint patrolling as soon as we are ready and trained for it.”

On June 18, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said his country's forces had begun military patrols and would enter the city “step by step.”

US-Turkish joint patrolling operations will be carried out in an area between the Euphrates Shield zone and Manbij, according to a roadmap agreed to by Ankara and Washington.

“The patrols are still not designed to go into the city, they are just going from individual patrols to joint patrols,” Army Colonel Sean Ryan, Spokesman for the Coalition, told Kurdistan 24.

However, he added, that “logistics wise, it will be a little longer than 72 hours as announced."

In early June, Cavusoglu met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo where the two endorsed a “general roadmap” for Manbij that was “conditions-based.”

Washington and Ankara have been locked in a dispute over the former’s support of the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG). Turkey claims the Kurdish forces have ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and thus considers the group “terrorists.”

The United States rejects that characterization and backs the YPG—who make a majority of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)—in the ongoing fight against the so-called Islamic State (IS).

On July 16, the Manbij Military Council announced that the YPG had completely withdrawn from Manbij.

In June, the Pentagon said the Turkish army would not enter Manbij, and the town would remain under control of the MMC.

Editing by John J. Catherine