Turkey, US start joint patrols in northern Syria's Manbij

Joint US-Turkish patrols started Thursday in Manbij, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said, following a road map agreed to by the NATO allies on the northern Syrian town's future.

"The joint patrol of US and Turkish units, which we have been planning for with the US in Manbij, started by 15:53 (1253 GMT) today," Akar said, according to Turkish state news agency Anadolu.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said the patrols were being conducted in an area separating the Kurdish-led Manbij Military Council forces and Turkish-backed rebels.

Kurdish sources in Manbij confirmed that the patrols have started mainly in the western sector of the town, but did not give details.

In June, Eric Pahon, a spokesman for the Pentagon, said Turkey and the US were coordinating independent patrols outside the flashpoint town along the already existing demarcation line.

That same month, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu met with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Washington, where both sides endorsed a plan for stability in Manbij.

The town was seized from the Islamic State extremist group in 2016 by the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) with the backing of a US-led coalition.

The YPG announced in June, a day after Turkey said it had reached an agreement with the US on the area, that it would withdraw its military advisers from Manbij.

Turkey not only wants the YPG out of Manbij but is also seeking to disarm the group across all of northern Syria.

The Manbij Military Council, a multi-ethnic force allied with the YPG, remains in the town.

Turkey believes that the Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) in Syria and its armed wing, the YPG, have ties to the banned Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) on its soil.

The YPG controls large areas in northern Syria on the border with Turkey.

Turkey's Defence Ministry said Thursday that the patrols would "continue until the goals defined by the road map are reached."

Elsewhere in northern Syria, a child was killed and four other civilians injured by Turkish shelling on the Kurd-controlled town of Tel Abyed, the observatory reported.

The shelling comes a day after the US-backed Kurdish Syrian  Democratic Forces (SDF) said they had suspended their campaign against Islamic State in the radical group's last pocket in eastern Syria due to Turkish attacks on Kurdish positions in the war-torn country.

In September, the SDF said its forces had started the final stage of their campaign against Islamic State in Syria's eastern province of Deir al-Zour.

Last week, Islamic State insurgents, taking advantage of bad weather, launched a series of attacks against SDF fighters east of the Euphrates and regained territory the radical group had earlier lost there.

The SDF has played a major role in fighting Islamic State in Syria, taking over most of the the group's strongholds in the provinces of al-Raqqa and Deir al-Zour.

Islamic State still controls pockets in eastern and southern Syria.