US-backed Kurdish fighters to move to Afrin
US-backed Kurdish forces say they are redeploying fighters from fronts against the Islamic State group in eastern Syria to the Kurdish-controlled enclave of Afrin in the northwest to shore up Kurdish fighters battling a Turkish offensive.
The Kurdish Rudaw news agency quotes Abu Omar al-Idilbi, a spokesman for Arab militias within the Syrian Democratic Forces as saying that 1,700 fighters will be redeployed from Deir el-Zour and other active fronts with IS.
An SDF statement says the fighters have made the "difficult decision" to redeploy because of the brutal Turkish offensive on Afrin.
US officials have been warning that Turkey's offensive against US-backed forces in Syria would affect the fight against Islamic State group.
