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A U.S. official announced the move about the truce in Manbij, where Kurdish and Turkish-backed fighters have clashed, as U.S. and other foreign officials try to broker a lasting armistice.
By Lara Jakes
Lara Jakes writes about global conflicts and diplomacy.
Dec. 18, 2024, 10:19 a.m. ET
A week-old cease-fire in a key city in northern Syria between rival Kurdish and Turkish-backed fighters has been extended for a few more days as American and foreign officials try to broker a lasting armistice in the area, a U.S. official said.
Matthew Miller, a State Department spokesman, said the pause in hostilities in the Arab-majority city of Manbij, about 20 miles south of the Turkish border, would last “into the end of this week.” Speaking in Washington on Tuesday, Mr. Miller did not give an exact day for when the cease-fire would end, or say whether it might be extended again.
“We do not believe it is in the interest of any party to see increased conflict in Syria,” Mr. Miller said. He added, “we are trying to work on a path forward that de-escalates tensions.”
Manbij has long been a flashpoint in the civil war in Syria — and the Islamic State tried to take advantage of the chaos it created there.
As part of its self-declared caliphate that seized large areas of territory in Syria and Iraq, ISIS took control of Manbij in 2014. Two years later, and with American assistance, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces liberated Manbij as part of a rout of the Islamic State in northern Syria.
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