The Manbij Military Council has renewed its leadership. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) confirmed Supreme Commander Mustafa Muhammad alias Abu Adel in his position at a meeting on Friday and appointed Abdul Rahman Al-Banawi and Ibrahim Hamdan as additional members of the leadership of the Military Council. They will succeed Şervan Derwêş and Xelîl Qehreman.

The Manbij Military Council was founded in April 2016 at the Tishrin Dam, a good 25 kilometers southeast of Manbij. The offensive to free the city from the Islamic State began just two months later and the liberation was achieved on 15 August.

Manbij lies west of the Euphrates and represented an important bridgehead for the ISIS militia, as a large part of the supply and foreign trade relations took place across the Turkish border. The liberation of Manbij meant the interruption of the Ankara regime's supply of ISIS and heralded the end of the self-proclaimed caliphate's territorial rule in Syria. Turkey has been trying to integrate the city into its illegal occupation zone for years.

Since 2022, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly named Manbij as the first target for another Turkish invasion of the autonomous region of Northern and Eastern Syria. Attacks occur almost every day in the region, mainly carried out by mercenaries from the militia group Syrian National Army (SNA), which was set up and financed by Ankara. The attacks come as part of a low-intensity war since the Turkish occupation of the cities of Serêkaniyê and Girê Spî in autumn 2019.