baghdad today - Syria

MIinbij-north of Syria.  Six Syrian civilians were killed and 19 others wounded as a result of an explosion in the center of the city of Manbij, while a US military patrol was passing eyewitnesses in Manbij told international media outlet

that leaders of the local military council and a certain delegation were at the site of the blast. According to them, the explosion occurred near a cafe where the leaders of the council and guests from the delegation, "whose identity has not yet been established", had gathered.

The city of Manbij in the northern province of Aleppo has switched hands three times since the civil war began in 2011. With US troops withdrawing from the country and Turkish forces concentrating at the Syrian border, the US-backed Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG), which was in control of the area at the end of December, invited Syrian government forces to the city.