By Cassandra Vinograd
Kurdish-led fighters backed by the United States said early Wednesday that they had agreed to a U.S.-brokered cease-fire in the city of Manbij in northern Syria, where they have been battling to fend off forces backed by Turkey, as Washington and its allies try to contain the fallout from the stunning collapse of the Assad regime.
The rebel offensive that swept through Syrian towns and cities to take control of the capital over the weekend set off fresh fighting among armed factions elsewhere in the country, trying to fill the void left by retreating government forces. Clashes in recent days have centered around Manbij, pitting proxies of the U.S. and Turkey, both NATO allies, against each other.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, reported that Turkish-backed forces had captured Manbij on Monday, which the U.S.-backed group, the Syrian Democratic Forces, denied. U.S. officials have not confirmed a cease-fire for Manbij.
The announcement came as U.S. officials mount a diplomatic push to promote stability in Syria in the wake of the ouster of President Bashar Assad. President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on Thursday. And Secretary of State Antony Blinken will visit Turkey and Jordan this week to discuss the developments in Syria, according to his spokesperson.
Here is what else to know:
— Israeli attacks: The Israeli military has launched hundreds of airstrikes against military assets across Syria in recent days, in an effort to keep them out of the hands of Islamist extremists. The rebel group that led the toppling of Assad was formerly linked to al-Qaida and is still designated as a terrorist group by the United States and the United Nations. While Israeli officials have cast the strikes as a security measure, the campaign has been exceptional in force and scope, trying to ensure that whoever ends up in power in Syria will be significantly disarmed.
— Rebels in Damascus: The rebels who seized the Syrian capital gave New York Times journalists a tour of Assad’s former palace Tuesday. The ostentatiousness of the palace and the scruffiness of the fighters who now occupy it encapsulated the differences between the former dictator and those who had taken his place.
— Prison horrors: The conquering rebels have thrown open the gates to Syrian prisons where the Assad government detained large numbers of people. No prison is more infamous than Sednaya, north of Damascus, where human rights groups say tens of thousands of people were detained, many of them tortured and deprived of food.
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