Defense Secretary Mattis says joint US-Turkish training to begin
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The US and Turkey have declared cooperation in northern Syria, with plans for training of joint patrols in the flashpoint area of Manbij in Aleppo Province.
US-supported, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces captured Manbij, about 95 km northeast of Aleppo city, from the Islamic State in summer 2016. The advance fostered tension with Turkey, which holds that the Kurdish militia YPG — the leading group in the SDF — is part of the Turkish Kurdish insurgency PKK. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkish forces would retake Manbij, with a majority Arab population; however, a combination of US, Russian, and Assad regime personnel deterred any attack.
For months, Ankara and the Pentagon have been discussing an arrangement to oversee the area. In March, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu backtracked on an announcement of an agreement.
But on Monday, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis confirmed last month’s announcement by the Turkish Government that training and implementation of joint patrols and training will begin soon in Turkey:
The training now is under way and we’ll just have to see how that goes.
We have every reason to believe the joint patrols will be coming on time, when the training syllabus is complete so that we do it right.
Mattis is in Paris for talks, including on the Syrian situation, with French counterparts and President Emmanuel Macron.
US and UK Suspend Aid Into Idlib, Citing “Extremist Taxes”
The US and UK have abruptly stopped aid through a key border crossing into Idlib Province in northwest Syria.
The US Agency for International Development said the step will prevent extremist groups from benefiting from taxes they impose on aid trucks.
The freeze will affect hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people in Idlib, where displaced Syrians make up about half of the estimated population of 3 million.
A USAID spokesperson said its “partners” should “immediately cease all use of the Bab al-Hawa border crossing between Syria and Turkey under USAID-funded awards”. It said a “sanctioned terrorist group” is “likely incurring financial benefits from Syrian trucks accessing the BAH border crossing”.
Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadist bloc sanctioned by the UN as well as the US, controls much of Idlib, including the Bab al-Hawa crossing.
The HTS’s civilian administration, a “Salvation Government”, said it would stop charging aid trucks as of 1 October.m It confirmed that it had been imposing “fees” on trucks with humanitarian aid”, using the money to repair and maintain roads used by the aid trucks. The statement said the fees will be halted to “relieve the suffering and hardship faced by our people” with an aid cut-off.
