BEIRUT, December 11. /TASS/. A Kurdish-led coalition, Syrian Democratic Forces, maintains contact with the opposition forces in Damascus through US mediators, the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces, Mazloum Abdi, told Al Hadath.
"We reach out [to them] via our US friends," he said. "Syria has found itself in a new situation, going through events that we could not foresee. The power landscape on the Syrian territory has changed. We are making attempts to participate in the political process together with new forces," Abdi added.
The Syrian Democratic Forces, supported by the United States, currently control most of the territory in the country’s three eastern and northeastern provinces - Deir ez-Zor, Raqqa and Hasakah. Since 2015, the US military created nine bases in this area.
On November 27, members of armed opposition groups launched a large-scale offensive against government forces' positions in Aleppo and Idlib Governorates. By the evening of December 7, opponents of Syrian President Bashar Assad had captured several major cities: Aleppo, Hama, Deir ez-Zor, Deraa, and Homs. They entered Damascus on December 8, after which Syrian army units withdrew from the city. The head of the Syrian government, Mohammad Ghazi al-Jalali, expressed his readiness for a peaceful transfer of power in the country. Assad left office and fled the country.
Turkey’s NTV television reported that Syrian opposition groups drove Kurdish forces out of Manbij in northern Syria.