Turkey targets SDF areas in northern Syria

Turkish army forces in Aleppo countryside - September 2022 (AFP)

Turkish army forces in Aleppo countryside - September 2022 (AFP)

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The Turkish Ministry of Defense announced today, Saturday, August 10, the neutralization of 12 “terrorists” from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) through a bombing campaign targeting areas in northern Syria.

In a statement, the ministry clarified that the terrorists were neutralized in the areas of the Euphrates Shield and Olive Branch operations in the countryside of Aleppo. The statement added that “Turkey will not allow the establishment of a terrorist corridor on its southern borders,” according to the Turkish Anadolu Agency.

For its part, the Manbij Military Council, affiliated with the SDF, stated that the Turkish army targeted the villages of al-Jat and Aun al-Dadat with 33 mortar and artillery shells, causing fires in the agricultural lands of al-Jat village.

This came hours after the al-Bab Military Council fighters downed two Turkish aerial drones in the village of Tal Turin in the Manbij countryside, east of Aleppo, according to the council.

In the same context, the villages and towns of al-Sayyada, al-Dandaniya, Umm Jalloud, Arab Hassan, al-Tokhar, al-Jat, al-Kawkli, al-Hushriya, and Aun al-Dadat in the Manbij countryside, east of Aleppo, which are under SDF control, were subjected to artillery shelling today by Turkish forces and their allied factions, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The Turkish Ministry of Defense had announced that “the number of terrorists neutralized during military operations since January 1, 2024, until last July 18, reached 1,427, including 746 in northern Syria and 681 in northern Iraq.”

The Turkish intelligence uses the term “neutralization” to refer to killing, injuring, or capturing individuals from organizations it classifies on its “terrorist lists.”

In the same context, Turkey welcomed Russia’s establishment of a new military base in Ain al-Arab/Kobani, north of Aleppo, near the Syrian-Turkish border.

On August 8, the Turkish Ministry of Defense stated in a press release that it views this move as “a weakening of the presence of the terrorist organization PKK/SDF/PYD-YPG in the region.”

Turkey considers the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) an extension of the banned and classified terrorist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

According to the Turkish news channel “TRT Haber,” the Ministry of Defense considered that the establishment of the base comes in the framework of implementing agreements signed with the United States and Russia, which include measures to withdraw “terrorist” elements to a specific area.

On August 2, Russia announced the establishment of a new military base in the area of Ain al-Arab.

Deputy Director of the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria, Colonel Oleg Ignasyuk, said that the establishment of the base is part of continuing measures “to monitor the ceasefire between the conflicting parties.”

 

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