Turkish-backed Syrian groups have seized control of a northern Syrian town from the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Turkish security source told Reuters.
According to foreign media, Manbij, a city in the eastern province of Aleppo, has been the scene of intense fighting in recent days between the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army and the SDF.
Both capitalized on the fall of the Assad regime to expand their territory, having already controlled various areas of northern Syria.
Recall that the Syrian Democratic Forces were formed from an alliance between the Kurdish-led People's Protection Units (YPG) and other groups, supported by the US, to fight the Islamic State in 2014.
The YPG was already in control of large areas of northeastern Syria since 2012, writes A2 CNN.
Turkey sees the YPG as inseparable from the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has waged a decades-long insurgency inside Turkey.
Turkey has sent troops to Syria since 2016 to remove Kurdish groups and the Islamic State from its borders, writes A2 CNN.
It eventually formed some of the groups into the Syrian National Army, which, backed by direct Turkish military power, held some territory along the Syrian-Turkish border. (A2 Televizion)
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