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US-Turkey road map in Syria risks Kurdish blowback

The Pentagon’s Kurdish allies could get shut out as the United States and Turkey move closer to a deal to settle a dispute over the contested Syrian city of Manbij.
Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG) fire rifles at a drone operated by Islamic State militants in Raqqa, Syria, June 16, 2017. Goran Tomasevic: "ISIS uses drones to monitor Kurdish fighters and drop bombs at their positions. On a few occasions I ran into a house with fighters because of drones. On one occasion a bomb from a drone landed near a house where I was hiding with the rest of our team and YPG fighters. The biggest challenge in Raqqa was very limited access and the heat. The te

With the United States and Turkey agreeing on a road map for settling a longstanding dispute in the contested Syrian city of Manbij, experts warn that Pentagon-backed Kurdish groups could get boxed out.

Following a meeting today between Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in Washington, the State Department issued a joint statement saying that both sides planned on “taking steps to ensure the security and stability” in the one-time Islamic State (IS) bastion west of the Euphrates River. The statement offered no specifics, but a Turkish government spokesman said today’s meeting included an agreement on a timetable for withdrawing US-allied Kurds from Manbij, a sticking point that has strained ties with Washington.

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