Syria’s Manbij Military Council rejects Turkish presence in region

Syria’s Manbij Military Council, a militia allied to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northern Syria, said on Wednesday that it will not accept a Turkish military presence in the town, according to the council’s official spokesman. “We will not accept that,” council spokesman Sharfan Darwish told Reuters. Turkey and the United States on Monday reached an agreement for jointly administering Manbij. Darwish said the council was “awaiting explanations and clarification from the international US-led coalition” about the details of the agreement. The Manbij Military Council said earlier that the Kurdish YPG militia would remove its military advisers from the town in the coming days.