PYD changes name of strategic city in northern Syria

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party's (PKK) Syrian affiliates Democratic Union Party (PYD) has changed the name of Manbij to Mabuk as part of its new strategy to declare autonomy in northern Syria.

PYD's armed wing the People's Protection Units (YPG) forces, backed by the US military, have surrounded the city after 11 days of fighting.

Munjir Abu Sallal, the chairman of Manbij local council, said the PYD named pro-Assad figure Abu Amjad as the head of the city council as the terror group prepares to establish federal administration.

“They will repeat the example of Tal Abyad; civilians' houses will be seized and the area included into the so-called Kurdistan project," Abu Sallal said.

He said the PYD/YPG terror group would force Arabs to leave the area and settle pro-YPG Kurds there, as they did in Tel Abyad and Al-Hasakah.

Manbij is a strategic city in northern Syria near Turkish border and a homeland with an Arab majority. Only 3 percent of its population is Kurdish.

“YPG would apply ethnic cleansing either by forcibly displacing Arabs or slaughtering them," Abu Sallal said.

He added that almost 70,000 people have already left the city from the fear of heavy clashes and YPG oppression.

Abu Sallal added that there are nearly 150,000 people still living in the city, but a wave of refugees from Manbij could head towards al-Bab and other neighboring cities and Turkey.