A senior Syrian Kurdish official said his forces will pull back from a border area in accordance with a US-brokered deal after Turkey allows the evacuation of its remaining fighters and civilians from a besieged town there.
Redur Khalil, a senior Syrian Democratic Forces official, said Saturday the plan for evacuation from the town of Ras al-Ayn was set for the following day, if there are no delays.
He said only after that will his force pull back from a 120-kilometer (75-mile) area between the towns of Ras al-Ayn and Tal-Aybad. It will withdraw and move back from the border 30 kilometers (19 miles).
This is the first time the Kurdish force has publicly acknowledged it would withdraw from the border, saying it had coordinated it with the Americans. The agreement has not specified the area of its pullback.
Previous agreements between the US and Turkey over a “safe zone” along the Syria-Turkish border floundered over the diverging definitions of the area.
Khalil said a partial evacuation happened earlier Saturday from Ras al-Ayn after much stalling and with US coordination. READ MORE
