Syrian soldiers in Tel Rifaat city, Illustrative image
Late on August 9, Syrian Arab Army (SAA) troops clashed with militants from the Liberation and Building Movement, a coalition within the Turkish-backed Syrian National Army, near the village of Tadif in the northern Aleppo countryside.
According to Syrian opposition news sources, the clashes broke out when a unit of the SAA attempted to infiltrate militants’ defenses near the town of al-Bab, which is located around a kilometer to the north of Tadif. These claims are yet to be verified.
A Turkish-backed militants was wounded in the course of the clashes. Nevertheless, the SAA didn’t sustain any human or material losses.
This was not the first round of clashes near Tadif this month. Late in July, Turkish-backed militants shelled SAA positions in the village. Back then, the militants claimed that the shelling was a response to a series of artillery strikes that targeted the outskirts of al-Bab.
Al-Bab is the main stronghold of Turkey’s proxies in northern Syria. The situation on al-Bab-Tadif front have been very much stable since 2017 thanks to a Russian-Turkish de-escalation agreement.
The recent attacks on Tadif were likely meant to intimidate the SAA, who recently boosted cooperation with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in the northern Aleppo countryside in response to threats by Turkey and its proxies.
