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Living at the Crossroads of Syria

Heather Murdock

   MANBIJ AND AL-BAB, SYRIA - A quiet strip of land in northern Syria
   hosts some of the world's strongest powers and bitterest enemies.

   Russian, American, Turkish, Syrian and Kurdish flags fly in the
   countryside while troops on both sides of the newly established and
   hotly contested "safe zone" along the Turkish border try to keep the
   peace.

   Inside the nearby city of Manbij, locals mostly will not say who they
   want to be in charge. In the eight years since the Syrian Civil war
   began, the city has been controlled by four different groups, each
   overthrowing the last.

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