Kurdish Syrian forces have asked the Syrian government for protection against a Turkish attack in a flashpoint town, triggered by a shock US decision to withdraw forces from the country which left them exposed. Syrian troops erected the national flag in the outskirts of Manbij - the first time it has flown in the northern town for more than six years. “The aim is to ward off a Turkish offensive,” said Ilham Ahmed, a senior Kurdish official. “If the Turks’ excuse is the (Kurdish militia), they will leave their posts to the government.” A statement released earlier by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) said they had invited government forces to the town, as they are “obliged to protect the same country, nation and borders." Kurdish YPG fighters still based there are part of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) alliance battling Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil). The town has been governed for the last two years by the Manbij Military Council, which is allied to the SDF. A convoy of American Special Forces and Syrian Democratic Forces fighters makes a stop during a patrol near the Turkish border in northern Syria on November 4, 2018. Credit: Sam Tarling for the Telegraph It is the first major concession by the Kurds to the Bashar al-Assad regime since the YPG seized control of vast swathes of north and east Syria and created an area of self-rule and one which analysts called a major turning point. Until last week the YPG had the support of the US, which had helped them stave off a threatened offensive by Turkey and Turkish-backed Syrian rebels and hold territory wanted by the Syrian regime. A number of Syrian troops arrived in the area early Friday morning and deployed between YPG and Turkish-backed forces west of Manbij. A Syrian army spokesman said in a televised statement that all Syrians must “join efforts to preserve national sovereignty” and “defeat all invaders”, with reference to Turkey. The US-backed coalition had a number of special forces stationed in the city, where they have a base. It is understood they will withdraw in the next few days. Men queue up to buy bread outside a bakery on the outskirts of Qamishli in northern Syria, Credit: Sam Tarling for the Telegraph It is unclear of local residents will react to regime forces returning to the city. "No one knows what to think as the regime has not yet arrived," one resident of Manbij, who declined to be named, told the Telegraph. "Anyone with any connection to the revolution will probably try to leave soon, maybe for areas controlled by Turkey in the Euphrates Shield." The town of some 100,000 people fell to moderate rebel fighters in the summer of 2012 before it was overrun by Isil jihadists in 2014. It was then captured by SDF in an anti-Isil offensive in 2016. The Kurds have used the cover of the war to carve out an autonomous state in northeastern Syria. However, their project seems increasingly under threat as Assad’s regime looks to reclaim the whole of Syria. Kurdish officials have told The Telegraph they would rather try their luck in negotiations with the regime than risk an all-out assault from neighbouring Turkey, which considers the YPG a terrorist group and has watched Kurdish expansion with growing concern. “The YPG accepts drinking the poison to stop a massacre. Do you prefer your people to be massacred by a brutal dictator like (Turkish president Recep Tayyip) Erdogan or be protected by a brutal dictator like Assad?” tweeted Kamal Chomani, a non-resident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy. Kurdish fighters from the People's Protection Units (YPG) run across a street in Raqqa during the offensive against Isil Credit: Reuters Russia, which has long called for the withdrawal of US troops “illegally” in Syria, welcomed the news on Friday, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov describing the development as a "positive step" that could help "stabilise the situation." Speaking in frank terms on Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw 2,000 troops from Syria, Jeremy Hunt, Foreign Secretary, today said the US president “makes a speciality of talking in very black and white terms about what's happening in the world.” "We have made massive progress in the war against Daesh (Arabic acronym for Isil), but it's not over and, although they have lost nearly all the territory they held, they still hold some territory and there is still some real risk," Mr Hunt told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. During a visit to Iraq this week, Mr Trump declared an end to the US role of being the world's "policeman". Arab leaders have in recent days taken steps to rehabilitate the brutal Assad regime, with the UAE and Bahrain announcing they are to reopen embassies that had been shut since the beginning of the civil war.
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