U.S. brokers deal between YPG, Anadolu says

The United States brokered a deal between the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) and the Islamic State (IS) to transfer jihadi groups’ fighters and their families from Syria to Turkey, state-run Anadolu Agency said on Saturday.

The YPG and IS agreed the U.S.-backed deal in Baghouz, an eastern Syrian village on the bank of the Euphrates River, the agency said.

The deal will allow IS members to stay in Kurdish-controlled camps if they wish, it noted.

Those who do not want to stay in Syria were promised alternative routes, including into a large swathe of territory in northwestern Syria consisting of Al-Bab and the border cities of Jarablus and Azaz, and the northwestern town of Afrin, both under the control of Turkish-backed rebels.

The YPG will also provide special travel documents to ISIS members who want to leave the camps, Anadolu said.

The report prepared by Anadolu reporters says the deal would allow IS members to infiltrate into Turkey, but does not mention such a term in information it provides on the said deal.

The U.S.-backed Syrian forces battling IS said on Saturday it was closing in on the jihadists’ last bastion near the Iraqi border, capping four years of efforts to roll back the group, Reuters reported.

Turkey has plans to establish a safe zone in northern Syria along the Turkish border against what Ankara says terrorist threats in the region, namely the YPG. Ankara is negotiating the establishment of the safe zone with Washington and Moscow.

The United States, which plans to reduce the number of American troops in Syria to 400 from 2,000, is trying to persuade its European allies to commit hundreds of troops to help set up and observe a potential safe zone in northeast Syria.

Reporter’s code: 50101

News Code 35899

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