Syrian Kurdish forces will pull back from a border area in accordance with a US-brokered deal after Turkey allows the evacuation of its remaining fighters and civilians from a besieged town there, a Kurdish official said on Saturday.
Redur Khalil, a senior Syrian Democratic Forces official, said the plan for evacuation from the border town of Ras al-Ayn is set for the following day, if there are no delays.
He says only after that will his force pull back from a 120-kilometer (75-mile) area between the towns of Ras al-Ayn and Tal-Aybad. It will withdraw and move back from the border 30 kilometers (19 miles).
This is the first time the Kurdish-led force has publicly acknowledged it will withdraw from the border, saying it has coordinated it with the Americans. The agreement has not specified the area of its pullback.
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Previous agreements between the US and Turkey over a "safe zone" along the Syria-Turkish border floundered over the diverging definitions of the area.
Khalil said a partial evacuation happened earlier on Saturday from Ras al-Ayn after much stalling and with US coordination.
Syrian Kurdish forces said on Saturday that Turkey was failing to abide by terms of the US-brokered ceasefire, refusing to lift a siege it imposed on a key border town in northeastern Syria more than a day after the truce went into effect.
Plumes of smoke were seen rising from a field near the town of Tal Tamr and ambulances were mobilised in the area.
The ceasefire got off to a rocky start, with sporadic fighting and shelling around Ras al-Ayn on Friday.
The border town is a test for the deal in which Turkey asks that Kurdish fighters vacate the frontier zone.
Turkey wants Kurdish fighters, who it considers "terrorists", to pull back from a border area.
This article has been adapted from its original source.
