A convoy of US military vehicles was filmed moving through the northern Syria’s countryside a day after Washington announced its troops would pull out ahead of Turkey’s “long planned” operation in the Kurdish-controlled area.

RT’s video agency Ruptly’s video shows a column of heavily armed vehicles, including a mine sweeper and cars armed with machine gun turrets, traversing a Syrian highway near the Turkish border on Monday.

Filmed in in Syria’s Tel Abyad District, the move appears to be part of the troop withdrawal, announced by the White House on Sunday. “United States forces, having defeated the ISIS territorial “Caliphate,” will no longer be in the immediate area,” the statement said, adding that the action was taken ahead of the Turkish operation, which it said would start “soon.”

Washington also said that the US forces “will not support or be involved in the operation” that Ankara seeks to launch to create a “safe zone” in north-eastern Syria, which is currently held by the Kurdish YPG militia. Ankara considers the YPG a terrorist organization linked to the PKK militant group operating in Turkey.

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The two NATO allies have conflicting views on the Kurds in the area, since the US has been arming and protecting them for years – much to Ankara’s discontent. The Kurdish population is wary of Turkey’s plan to resettle some 3.6 million Syrian refugees in the future “safe zone” – which would likely mean the displacement of Kurds. However, their pleas for US protection from “invasion” and “occupation” have so far resulted only in a warning by President Donald Trump, who vowed to “obliterate” the Turkish economy if he believes Ankara does anything “off limits.”

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