News reports said that Turkish military units stormed Afrin, northwest of Syria, at dawn on Wednesday. However, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) denied this news.
Earlier, the Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA) said, on Tuesday, that the Turkish forces issued warnings to the people in the Turkish border areas adjacent to Jarabulus in the Aleppo countryside in preparation for a new attack on Syria.
The Syrian Agency stated that there was an intensive flight of Turkish reconnaissance aircraft and a large mobilization of forces over most of the areas adjacent to Turkish territory in the countryside of Aleppo, Hasaka and Raqqa, coinciding with the warnings.
Syrian faction forces loyal to Turkey
On Tuesday, Syrian state media reported that 3 soldiers were killed and 6 others were wounded Turkish air attack It targeted military points in the countryside of Aleppo.
The reports quoted a military source as saying that the Syrian armed forces responded to the attack, inflicting human and material losses, without giving details.
And Syrian TV said: “This afternoon, from 14:37 to 15:00 (1137-1200 GMT), the Turkish warplanes targeted some military points in the countryside of Aleppo, killing three soldiers and wounding six others.” There was no comment from the Turkish side so far.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights stated that the Turkish air strikes targeted military positions of the regime forces in the village of Tal Jarqali in the countryside of Ain al-Arab, east of Aleppo, and led to the death of 17 people and a number of others, some of whom are seriously injured.
The observatory added that the Turkish targeting was carried out by land and air in that area, without knowing whether all the dead were from the regime forces.
Turkey has launched several military operations in northern Syria since 2016, to impose its control over hundreds of kilometers and reach a depth of 30 kilometers inside Syrian territory, targeting primarily the Kurdish faction (People’s Protection Units), which it classifies as a terrorist organization.
Ankara also supports some opposition factions in the Syrian war. Damascus accuses Turkey of supporting terrorist groups inside Syria.