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Is Manbij the latest Kurdish poke in Erdogan's eye?

Erdogan's plan to contain Kurds suffers a setback as Manbij on Syria's northern border with Turkey declares itself a self-governed canton.
Members of Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) attend the funeral of eight fellow fighters who died during an assault against the Islamic State (IS) group in the town of Manbij, in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobane (aka Ain al-Arab) on June 24, 2016. In the background a Martyrs memorial is under construction.
The US-backed Kurdish and Arab forces, pushed further into the Islamic State group stronghold of Manbij, seizing a key road junction and grain silos overlooking the city, a monitoring group said. The city l

MANBIJ, Syria — As Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was declaring in February that after taking over al-Bab, Turkey would proceed to Manbij and then to Raqqa, Al-Monitor was meeting in Manbij with Adnan Abu Amjad, general commander of the Manbij Military Council.

The day of the meeting, the largely Kurdish, US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) coalition west of Manbij was under heavy shelling by the Turkish army and the Free Syrian Army (FSA) groups Turkey supports. The United States was not responding to the attacks. When asked about the lack of reaction from the United States and the international coalition to the Turkish attacks, Abu Amjad said, “Our forces liberated seven villages from [the Islamic State (IS)] at al-Bab. The coalition wants us to withdraw to the town limits of Manbij because they say their agreement with Turkey covers only the town. But we don’t want to withdraw because the stability of Manbij depends on these villages.”

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