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U.S. troops have begun patrols in northeastern Syria, a military official confirmed Monday.
The patrols come after the Turkish military shelled several PKK/YPG positions in the region last week. The YPG is the Syrian branch of the PKK terror group.
At a news conference, Pentagon spokesman Col. Rob Manning said the "assurance patrols" with SDF forces started Friday.
"While there is no set timetable for these specific patrols or regularity, these patrols will allow us, Turkey and our SDF partners to maintain the safety and security of the region," said Manning.
On combined joint patrols that started with the Turkish military in Manbij, Manning said: "These patrols and our continued efforts to de-escalate tensions will allow us to focus on our goal of ensuring the enduring" defeat of Daesh.
The PKK is listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the U.S. and EU.
In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, it has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women and children.
A Lebanese minister has accused Syrian regime forces of killing refugees who have returned to the war-torn country.Speaking to Anadolu Agency on Monday, Minister of State for Refugee Affairs Mouin Merehbi said a Syrian family had been killed in Homs countryside in western Syria last week.“Security officials in the regime forces had stormed the family’s house and killed the father, son and a nephew,” Merehbi said.He said the murdered family had recently returned to Syria.US patrols Hasakah with SDF terrorists days after joint US-Turkey patrols in Manbij“Murders and liquidation are targeting those returning to regime-held areas, particularly villages and towns near Lebanese border,” he said.The minister denied that the Lebanese authorities were forcing Syrian refugees to return to their country.“They return voluntarily,” he said. “We did not force anyone to return.”Last week, Lebanese authorities said that more than 87,000 Syrian refugees have returned to their country since July.Beirut estimates the number of Syrian refugees still in the country at some 1.5 million, although the UN puts the number at less than a million.Syria has only just begun to emerge from a devastating conflict that began in 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on demonstrators with unexpected ferocity.Syrian tribes call for boycott of YPG/PKK in Raqqa
Returning refugees killed in Syria: Lebanese minister
French prosecutors have issued international arrest warrants for three senior Syrian intelligence and government officials, including security chief Ali Mamlouk, for alleged collusion in war crimes, a defence lawyer and a judicial source said on Monday.Mamlouk, one of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's most senior advisers, was targeted by the order alongside Jamil Hassan, the head of Airforce Intelligence who is already the subject of a German warrant, the sources said.Another senior Airforce Intelligence official, Abdel Salam Mahmoud, was also named in the French order, one of the sources said.The warrants stem from a long-running case involving two French-Syrian nationals who were arrested in Syria in November 2013 and had disappeared since.Russian delegation meets Assad in DamascusDamascus confirmed in August 2018 that the father and son, Mazen and Patrick Abdelkader Dabbagh, were dead, the sources said. They include a lawyer for their family, Clemence Bectarte, who said the warrants were issued in mid-October.Prosecutors in Paris had already opened a probe into the pair's disappearance, starting with a preliminary investigation in 2015, and had found that their house in Damascus had been raided by intelligence officials, the judicial source said.The French warrants bring charges including collusion in torture, forced disappearances, crimes against humanity and war crimes against the Syrian officials.Germany - which has universal jurisdiction over war crimes, meaning it can prosecute and try crimes committes abroad - has also taken similar steps, issuing an arrest warrant in June for Airforce Intelligence official Hassan. Efforts to prosecute members of the Assad government have repeatedly failed because Syria is not a signatory of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC) in the Hague. Russia and China have also vetoed attempts to give the ICC a mandate to set up a special tribunal for Syria.Syrian tribes call for boycott of YPG/PKK in Raqqa
France issues arrest warrants for senior Syrian officials close to Assad
Killing of a local tribal leader in alleged armed attack by the terrorist YPG/PKK group has risen tension in Raqqa city of war-torn Syria.Following the assassination of its leader Bashir Faisal al-Huwaidi, members of Sabha tribe on Sunday called for boycott of YPG/PKK, which is held responsible for the attack, in the region.Al-Huwaidi -- known opposed to the terrorist group -- was killed on Saturday in Raqqa.Many other regional tribes have also joined Sabha's condemnation of the attack, announcing their support for the boycott until the culprit is revealed.Refugees from Raqqah want to return to their homelandTurkey calls on US to terminate engagement with PYD/YPGYPK/PKK terror in RaqqaFor the past year, the YPG/PKK has oppressed and terrorized Raqqa’s local population -- as it has in other areas under its control.It has forcibly recruited civilians into its ranks and has prevented many local residents from rebuilding their homes, many of which were destroyed last year by intense coalition airstrikes.The YPG/PKK, however, does not provide any public services, while residents accused of having links with the opposition frequently face arbitrary detention.In a report published last December, the U.K.-based Syrian Network for Human Rights said a total of 2,323 civilians had been killed in Raqqa in the period from November 2016 to October 2017.Erdoğan calls on terrorists to leave Syria's ManbijUN aid trucks reach remote Rukban camp in SyriaTurkey may position howitzer batteries in Syria, says defense analyst
Syrian tribes call for boycott of YPG/PKK in Raqqa