Citizens from the city of Manbij and military sources, from the city’s surrounding, negated Assad’s forces’ entry to the area, and the sources indicated that their movement is limited to a number of posts where Assad’s forces were positioned earlier.
“The statement of Assad’s forces about entering Manbij is an evidence to their impotency concerning the city’s affair, and its objective is media-related without any on ground presence,” Youssef Hamoud, spokesman of the “National Army,” told Enab Baladi today, Friday (December 28).
“None of the Syrian regime’s soldiers has entered the city, and the American forces are still positioned in the southern enclave,” Hamoud added.
The commander declared that Assad’s forces have lifted the regime’s flag in the Souame area, which was already controlled by them, stressing that “on the ground, there is nothing. The regime is seeking a fake victory.”
The information provided by Hamoud are confirmed by citizens inside Manbij, who told Enab Baladi that Assad’s forces did not enter the city until now, while there is some sort of action in some military posts, they entered in 2017 during the military operations against the “Islamic State” (ISIS).
Assad’s forces announced entering the city of Manbij and raising the flag of the Syrian regime there, after the Kurdish “People’s Protection Units” called on them to enter the city.
In a statement, broadcasted on TV today, The General Command of Assad’s forces said: “Triggered by the army and the military forces’ full commitment and answering the appeal of Manbij area’s people, the General Command of the Army announces the army’s units’ entry to the city of Manbij and raising the Syrian flag there.”
In the past a few days, Assad’s forces brought military reinforcements from the “Republican Guard” in the surrounding of the city of Manbij, palming to enter it, according to pro-regime news networks.
The networks posted footage showing Assad’s forces arrival in the vicinity of Manbij, and their entry to certain areas, including Arima village, located on a confrontation line with the “Free Army’s” control area.
Ina addition to the opposition factions’ negation of the news, pro-regime activists said, on Facebook, that Assad’s forces did not enter Manbij till now, while, on Twitter, Aleppo’s deal intermediary, Omar Rahmoun, said that the current step resembles what happened in the city of Afrin.
All the above-mentioned leads to last March, when Assad’s forces came in control of the line separating “SDF” from the “Euphrates Shield” factions in the city of Manbij, east of Aleppo city.
Back then, this appeared in a statement of Hamza Zaza, commander of the “Border Guard” of the Assad’s forces, in which he said: “The Border Guards are the forces positioned along the line separating the Manbij Military Council’s Forces and those of the Euphrates Shield, between Manbij and al-Bab areas.”
In a statement published at the time, the “Military Council in Manbij and its Countryside” affirmed that it will surrender villages near Manbij to the Syrian regime, under a Russian deal to “protect civilians.”
The statement of Hamza Zaza, Commander of the “Border Guard,” corresponded to lifting the flag of the Syrian regime above the military posts surrendered by the Kurdish forces, on the border with the “Euphrates Shield” areas.
The declaration of the regime’s entry to Manbij corresponds to the arrival of massive Turkish military reinforcements in the area’s surrounding, backed by mobilization and readiness on the part of the “National Army’s” factions to start a military operation in the upcoming days.