MMC reveals HTS stations on contact lines with SDF in Syria’s Manbij
MANBIJ, Syria (North Press) – Manbij Military Council (MMC), affiliated with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), said on Wednesday their forces detected a positioning of the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, formerly al-Nusra Front) in villages in the countryside of Manbij, northern Syria, after expelling their original citizens.
The MMC stated via its official account that they detected the presence of HTS militants particularly in the villages of al-Yashli and Sheikh Nasser, 19km in the northwest of Manbij.
The HTS evacuated the villages and set up heavy weapons there. These movements came after the MMC thwarted all of the attacks launched by Turkish-backed armed opposition factions, aka the Syrian National Army (SNA), in the past few days, it added.
The SNA factions have been attacking the countryside of Manbij since Sep. 1, following the clashes that erupted between the SDF and gunmen affiliated with Syrian government forces and Iranian-backed militias in Deir ez-Zor Governorate, eastern Syria.
The MMC announced on Sep. 4 the killing and injury of 74 militants while deterring these attacks.
Meanwhile, Commander-in-chief of the SDF, Mazloum Abdi, told al-Arabiya al-Hadath news channel that Turkey intensified its attacks against their forces in tandem with the tension in Deir ez-Zor.
A military source within the opposition told North Press that HTS sent 75 militants from the Red Band factions to back the gunmen in the countryside of Deir ez-Zor.
In late 2022, several sources told North Press that HTS militants stationed for the first time in the villages of al-Yashli and al-Hamran in the northwest of Manbij in cooperation with the SNA’s Ahrar al-Sham faction. The faction allows HTS militants to disguise in their uniforms to cover their presence in Afrin and other areas in the countryside of Aleppo.
Over a year ago, the SDF revealed a Turkish plan plotted in Idlib Governorate in northwest Syria to establish a “black belt” on contact lines with SDF forces, consisting of militants from HTS and al-Qaeda-affiliated Hurras al-Din to include them in a possible attack on areas in north Syria.
The SDF revealed that 300 militants from both groups were deployed on contact lines starting from the southern countryside of Afrin in northwest Syria all the way to Manbij and the western countryside of Kobani.