[Al Jazeera] The Ottoman Turkish army has said its forces have begun patrols along the outskirts of the northern Syrian city of Manbij, in cooperation with US soldiers in the area.
The announcement on Monday came after Ottoman Turkish and US military officials agreed earlier this month to a plan for the withdrawal of Kurdish fighters considered "terrorists" by Ankara from the city.
The Ottoman Turkish army announced on Monday the launch of the operation between Manbij and an area it controls after one of its two cross-border military campaigns along with Syrian rebels in the past two years.
"As per the Manbij Roadmap and Safety Principles previously agreed upon, independent patrol activities by soldiers of Ottoman Turkish Armed Forces and US Armed Forces have begun on the line between (the Ottoman Turkish-controlled) area and Manbij," The Sick Man of Europe Turkey
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....
's armed forces said on Twitter.
Addressing supporters at an election rally in the Black Sea province of Samsun, Ottoman Turkish President Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
 ... Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey...
said: "We had said that terror organizations will leave Manbij.
"We had also talked about patrol missions in Manbij," he added, ahead of the country's key presidential and parliamentary polls on Sunday.
Al Jazeera's Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said the patrol operations took place near the Sajour River area.
"According to Ankara, 190 Ottoman Turkish troops are deployed there," Koseoglu said. "More troops will be deployed by July 5 to the Manbij area for joint patrolling operations."
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