Kurdish militia to leave Manbji

WASHINGTON» An Americanbacked Syrian Kurdish militia said Tuesday it will leave the strategic town of Manbij under a delicate U.S.-Turkey deal that could ease tensions between the NATO allies and force a realignment of troops along the volatile SyriaTurkey frontier.

Illustrating the fragility of the arrangement, the United States and Turkey offered differing descriptions of what the deal entailed, how it would be carried out and when. But ultimately, the Kurdish militia known as the YPG is expected to retreat to east of the Euphrates River, meeting a longstanding demand by Ankara, which considers the militia a terror group tied to a Kurdish insurgency within Turkey’s borders. Ethnic Kurds live on both sides of the border, in southeastern Turkey and northern Syria.

Turkish officials suggested an ambitious plan had been hashed out under which the withdrawal would be complete within six months, with Kurdish fighters giving up their weapons as they leave Manbij. A Turkish official said Turkey would review the withdrawal before a new council is set up to administer the multiethnic town.

The U.S. wouldn’t discuss whether the Kurdish troops would have to give up weapons, and insisted the plan included only “estimated timelines” based on events on the ground and no hard deadlines. First, joint U.STurkish patrols will be dispatched along a pre-existing demarcation line around Manbij, senior State Department officials said, in a sort of trust-building exercise to pave the way for a withdrawal.

After the YPG removes its forces, the Manbij Military Council will be reconstituted, with the Kurdish elements removed and the remaining membership made up of “locals” who are “mutually agreeable” to the U.S. and Turkey, the officials said.

The officials from both countries spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the deal publicly.

The YPG — Kurdish initials for “People’s Protection Units” — acknowledged that it planned to pull its military advisers out of Manbij, describing it in a statement as the consequence of having completed their mission to train the Manbij Military Council to defend the town.

Shervan Darwish, a current member of the council, said residents were “anxious” about the news. He estimated that 1 million people live in Manbij and the surrounding countryside, many of them displaced from fighting elsewhere in the country.