YPG: Our forces will not withdraw east of the Euphrates

People Protection Units (YPG) spokesperson Redur Xelil said that, despite an announcement to the contrary on Wednesday, the YPG would not be retreating from the west of the Euphrates. 

"Turkey's Jarablus intervention is a hostile approach," he told Voice of America radio on Wednesday evening. "The main target of this operation is the Kurdish people and their gains rather than IS. We are in the west of Euphrates and take our place within Syrian Democratic Forces. We are in our own land and we will not leave it as per some request. We will not act in line with the request of Turkey or some other power.

"Turkish state cannot shape our position there in accordance with its own interests. Our forces will remain there and there will be no retreat. Nobody has the right to impose YPG's withdrawal from there and we will never accept such a thing."

On Wednesday, US Vice President Joe Biden said that the YPG would lose US support if they continued its march. The YPG appeared to say they would comply, but also said that the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the US-back coalition of which the YPG is part, would remain.