Multisided clashes move toward key city

With uncertainty building, the U.S. deployed a number of armored vehicles to its allies in Manbij, the Syrian Kurdish Rudaw news agency reported Saturday.

Operation Inherent Resolve spokesman Col. John Dorrian confirmed the deployment on Twitter. He said it was meant to “deter aggression and keep focus on defeating ISIS,” another acronym for the Islamic State group.

Dorrian added the deployment was there to guarantee that the Kurdish elements of the SDF have left Manbij. Turkey says they have not.

The Syrian military, meanwhile, has driven east of Aleppo to draw a front with the Turkish-backed Syrian opposition forces south of alBab, blocking their route to Raqqa. Government forces, backed by Lebanese Hezbollah militants and Russian airpower, have moved quickly in the direction of IS-held al-Khafseh, on the banks of the Euphrates.

Al-Khafseh is home to the main water station for Aleppo, Syria’s largest city. Government forces are 8 miles away, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

The U.N.’s OCHA agency said that the Turkish and Syrian opposition campaign to capture al-Bab from IS militants displaced 40,000 residents. They captured the town on Feb. 23, after starting operations in November.

The office said another 26,000 residents have been displaced in fighting around Manbij and al-Khafseh.

In other news, a Syrian searchand-rescue group reported a bomb blast in the opposition-held town of Azaz, north of Aleppo, killing at least eight people. Azaz is 31 miles from al-Bab.