Villages in Syria’s north handed over to govt forces

MANBIJ: US-backed Syrian fighters have turned over several villages in the country’s north to government forces under a deal to avoid conflict with Turkey, a spokesman said on Tuesday.

The Manbij Military Council, part of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, announced the planned handover last week.

“Some villages and points on the western side of the town of Al Areima have been handed over to the border guards of the Syrian regime,” Manbij Military Council spokesman Sherfan Darwish said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britainbased monitor of the war, said the handover had happened on Monday and involved fewer than 10 villages. Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman described the handover as “for show.”

“Members of the Manbij Military Council simply put on army clothes and raised the Syrian flag to avoid Turks,” he said.

There was no mention in Syrian state media of the handover to government forces.

The Manbij Military Council, part of the Kurdish-Arab SDF, first announced the handover last week, marking the first time that USsupported fighters had proposed ceding territory to regime forces.

The Council said the deal had been agreed with Russia to “protect the line dividing the Manbij Military Council and the areas under the control of the Turkish army and Euphrates Shield.”

Euphrates Shield is the name of the operation Turkey launched inside Syria last August targeting the IS group and the SDF, which is dominated by Kurdish fighters.

The handover plan was announced after Euphrates Shield forces attacked several villages under SDF control east of the town of Al-Bab last week. friction with the