Washington is preparing to transfer troops from northern Syria to Iraq and Erdogan promises to resume the battle after the deadline

US Defense Secretary Mark Esper expects the withdrawal of his country's withdrawn troops from northern Syria to western Iraq to face Islamic State, while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised to resume Operation "Spring of Peace" in northern Syria if the terms of the agreement with Washington to withdraw "Syrian Democratic Forces" "Within the time limit.

In a press statement on his plane to the Middle East, Esber said that the US withdrawal from northern Syria is proceeding through aircraft and ground convoys, and will be completed within weeks, not days.

He added that the current plan is to re-station these forces estimated at 1,000 troops in western Iraq to continue the campaign against IS fighters, and help defend the country.

Esber said the ceasefire in northeastern Syria was generally coherent and there were reports of intermittent fire, but that was not surprising, he said.

He explained that the United States is still in contact with Kurdish fighters, and that they continue to defend the prisons of IS fighters in areas they still control.

"Things can change between now and when we complete the withdrawal, but this is the plan to act now," a senior US official said, referring to any decision to send additional troops to Iraq for close review.

US troops withdrawn from northern Syria will join more than 5,000 US troops in Iraq on the pretext of confronting IS. Esber announced that he had spoken to his Iraqi counterpart about these additional troops.

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On the other hand, Erdogan said, "We have agreed to temporarily stop the fighting for 120 hours, and if we do not implement what we have agreed, the peace process will continue in the first minute after the deadline."

He said he had spoken by telephone with his US counterpart Donald Trump in the evening and would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday during a visit to Moscow to discuss the deployment of Syrian regime forces in the safe area.

The Turkish Defense Ministry has announced that the YPG and PKK forces, which form the backbone of the SDF, have carried out 14 "assaults" in the past hours in Ras al-Ain, Tal Abyad and Tal Tamr, despite Ankara's commitment to the ceasefire agreement signed with Washington. .

According to sources in the National Army of the Syrian opposition that an ambulance convoy evacuated from the city of Ras al-Ain wounded "Syrian Democratic Forces" to areas of control east of the Euphrates, and that shooting occurred in the city after the evacuation of the wounded.