Kurdish forces are refusing to withdraw from areas west of the Euphrates River, saying that Turkey is trying to remove them from northern Syria, according to Kurdish media site Rudaw.
“The Turkish intervention in Jarablus is a hostile intervention. Its main goal, more than ISIS, is the Kurds,” says Redur Xelil, spokesperson for the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG).
Smokes billows on the Syrian side of the Turkish-Syrian border as Turkey’s military and US-backed coalition forces launched an operation to clear a Syrian border town from Islamic State, August 24, 2016. Photo DHA via AP
“Our forces are part of the SDF [Syrian Democratic Forces] and we insist on our mission and goal. We won’t listen to the demands of Turkey or powers outside of Turkey. Turkey cannot impose its own agenda, its own interests on us. Our forces are there. We will not withdraw from west of the Euphrates. No one has the right to ask the YPG to leave the area,” he adds.
The decision goes against a request by US Vice President Joe Biden, who called on the Kurdish forces to leave areas they liberated west of the Euphrates River. The US made a commitment to Ankara before the operation to liberate the northern Syrian city of Manbij, Rudaw reports.
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