the group announced the decision a day after Turkey and the United States reached an agreement for administering the area that includes a longstanding Turkish demand the YPG withdraw.

Under the roadmap endorsed by Ankara and Washington for Manbij, near Syria’s northern border with Turkey, the two nations would jointly maintain security and stability there, Reuters reported.

In a statement, the YPG said its fighting forces had withdrawn from Manbij in November 2016 shortly after Islamic State was defeated there, but military advisers which had remained to work with the Manbij Military Council would now also withdraw.

The YPG added that its forces remained willing to help the people of Manbij “should it be needed”.

In Washington, U.S. officials welcomed the announcement.

“Those advisers are largely there to ensure that if there was a military offensive, they would be there to defend the city,” a U.S. official told reporters. “Without the threat of a military offensive, the situation is different.”

“So obviously we encourage that announcement and we’ll continue to work with all sides to implement the roadmap as it was agreed yesterday by the secretary and foreign minister.”

The U.S. officials, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, did not give a timeline for the roadmap, saying details still need to be negotiated and implementation will be based on developments on the ground.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday YPG personnel withdrawing from Manbij would be disarmed and sent east of the Euphrates River.

Reporter’s code: 50101