ANKARA, June 18 (Xinhua) -- Turkish and U.S. armies have started a patrol mission in the northern Syrian town of Manbij, Turkish leadership announced on Monday.
"We had said the terror organizations would get out. They started to get out. The patrolling has started," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said at a rally in northern Samsun province of Turkey.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu detailed the mission, saying that Turkish soldiers have not entered the Manbij city yet, but they will enter stage by stage.
The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) will be removed from Manbij and Turkish army will continue to work for stability of the region, he said, noting that they want to implement the Manbij plan in other cities of Syria as well.
"I hope we will implement this plan in Manbij, then move to other cities. Our goal is to get YPG out of all the regions they control," the minister said.
In a statement on Twitter, the Turkish Armed Forces announced a patrol mission with the United States conducted on Monday between Euphrates Shield area and Manbij.
The joint forces carried out patrols in an area overlooking the U.S. base in Syria's Dadat town which lasted around three hours, Anadolu Agency reported.
The move comes after a deal between Turkish Foreign Minister and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on June 4 over the Manbij roadmap that brings about the retreat of YPG elements from Manbij.
Ankara has long been exerting pressure on Washington for withdrawal of Syrian Kurds in Manbij to the east of the Euphrates River since the group built up its military and administrative power in the region after defeating Islamic State (IS) group there in 2016.
Turkey accuses the YPG of having ethnically cleansed Arabs and other minorities from the areas it captured during the Syrian civil war in order to establish a Kurdish entity in northern Syria.
Therefore, Turkey asked the United States to establish a new administrative model in Manbij and in other disputed regions where the demography will be fairly represented.
The U.S. troops were stationed alongside YPG militants in Manbij following an offensive against the Islamic State (IS), a move irked Ankara, who sees the Kurdish group as Syrian branch of Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
On Jan. 20, Turkish troops and the allied Syrian rebels launched an offensive to drive the YPG out of the Afrin district. Ankara warned the United States that its army could move further into Manbij as well, signaling a risk of confrontation with the U.S. soldiers there.
Washington had called for restraint, and in March, former U.S. Secretary State Rex Tillerson rushed to Ankara for a meeting with Erdogan to repair their relations, following months of spat mostly because of the U.S. support to Syrian Kurds.
A working group was formed after the meeting and the officials outlined a roadmap for Manbij which was kicked off in early June at a meeting of the new U.S. Secretary of State Pompeo and his Turkish counterpart.
In the first stage, the plan envisages removal of the YPG from Manbij and patrolling of the U.S. and Turkish army in the region to maintain security.
The United States and Turkey will also work together to establish a local administration, upon Ankara's demand to form a city council at which the demographic structure of the region will be reflected.
The Manbij roadmap will be a significant step for the two sides from "confidence crisis" to bilateral cooperation, Abdullah Agar, a security expert said.
Turkey aims to implement the plan for the east of Euphrates, he said, adding that Ankara sees the region as a threat to its national security.
"Turkey wants to eliminate influence of PKK in the region," he said, referring to Kobane province near southern border of Turkey.
