ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Syrian National Army (SNA), an umbrella of opposition militia groups, has taken control of the northern city of Manbij from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a senior official from the Kurdish administration in northeast Syria (Rojava) confirmed to Rudaw English on Tuesday.
The Turkish-backed SNA has been attempting to take over the city for two weeks but it faced strong resistance from the SDF-affiliated Manbij Military Council.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the “liberation” of the city from the SDF on Monday and Turkish media published videos purportedly showing that the SNA fighters were inside the city.
The Rojava official told Rudaw English on the condition of anonymity that the militants are now in control of the strategic city that Kurds took from the Islamic State (ISIS) in 2016.
The SDF has recently published videos it said showed the resistance of their forces in the city, claiming that the two-week fighting inflicted a significant number of casualties among SNA ranks.
The US-backed force also said that Turkey was supporting the militants from the air.
The development comes amid historic changes in Syria as a coalition of militia groups led by the Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) ousted Bashar al-Assad on Sunday.
The SNA has said that their attempt to take Manbij is part of the code-named Operation Dawn of Freedom which was launched late last month in Tal Rifaat, forcing the SDF-linked fighters to withdraw from the town.
During his speech on Monday, Erdogan said that Ankara “has no eye on the territory of another country. The sole purpose of our cross-border operations is to protect our homeland and our citizens from terrorist attacks."
He added that they will also “not tolerate the emergence of new sources of terrorism beyond its borders.”
Turkey considers the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the SDF, the Syrian offshoot of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) - which has been involved in a decades-long war with Turkey.
Responding a Rudaw question about the possibility of ending hostilities between Ankara and the SDF during a press conference in Doha on Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said, “In short, no, unless they change themselves.”
Updated at 9:25 am
