The Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) announced on Tuesday their withdrawal from the Syrian flashpoint town of Manbij as Ankara announced that they will be disarmed as part of a roadmap with the United States.
The YPG had taken part in the victorious offensive in 2016 to rid Manbij of the ISIS terrorist group. It has since kept military advisors in the town to train local forces.
"Now, after more than two years of continuous work and with the Manbij Military Council being self-sufficient in their training, the YPG has decided to pull its military advisors from Manbij," it said in a statement.
The YPG forms the backbone of the Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish-Arab alliance that has ousted ISIS from swathes of Syria with help from the US-led coalition.
The coalition has both American and French troops stationed in Manbij, but the YPG statement did not say whether they would be redeployed.
It made no mention of ongoing efforts between the US and Turkey to resolve the fate of the town.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu revealed that the YPG forces leaving Manbij would be stripped of their weapons.
Speaking to reporters in Turkey's southern province of Antalya, Cavusoglu said joint work on the roadmap, which he endorsed with his US counterpart Mike Pompeo in Washington on Monday, will begin in 10 days and be carried out within six months.
He stated in future the model should also be applied to Syria's Raqqa, Kobani and other areas controlled by the YPG.
The United States did not promise to declare the YPG a terrorist organization, Cavusoglu added.
He also said that Turkey's efforts in Manbij with the United States were not an alternative to working with Russia in Syria.
For months, Ankara has threatened to march on Manbij, accusing the YPG of being the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which is blacklisted in Turkey.
Those threats raised fears of a confrontation between Turkish and American troops that talks have tried to tamp down.
