Members of al-Qaeda-linked Hayat Tahrir al-Sham repelled a Syrian Army attack on the area of al-Katibat al-Mahjura in southern Idlib on December 12. A day earlier militants captured this area and repelled a first Syrian Army attempt to regain it. Pro-militant sources claim that at least 25 soldiers were killed in the clashes.
It’s interesting to note that radicals are using areas close to Turkish observation posts to shell government-controlled villages and towns.
On December 11, another video showing Hayat Tahrir al-Sham militants shelling Msheirfeh from the Turkish post at Suramn appeared online. Furthermore, militants used the Turkish-supplied HY-12 mortar.
The Afrin Liberation Forces, a group affiliated with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, announced that they had killed at least eleven Turkish-backed militants in attacks in northern Aleppo during the past few days.
The Turkish military is expanding its presence in the captured part of northeastern Syria. On December 12, the Turkish Defense Ministry announced that its forces had established 41 checkpoints between the border towns of Ras al-Ayn and Tell Abyad.
The defense ministry said that commandos are deployed at the checkpoints, registering vehicles’ chassis numbers, engine numbers and the personal IDs of the owners.
“Road checks are being carried out 24-7 in order to prevent incursions by PKK/YPG and ISIS terrorists, mainly their car-bomb attacks. Additionally, our commandos are also preventing smuggling thanks to the in-depth search and sweep operations being conducted,” the statement said.
8,272 vehicles have been checked and tagged on Turkish checkpoints, so far. More checkpoints are to be established soon.
Earlier, it was revealed that the Turkish Army set up fortified positions south of Tell Dhi’ab and southwest of Tell Barqah. Turkish troops there were reinforced by several Leopard 2A4 battle tanks and ACV-15 armored personnel carriers.
HTS is shelling from Turkish observation posts? Using Turkish weapons? Doesn’t sound good.
The ceasefires Putin and Erdogan impose work really well don’t they, for the terrorists that is. The one good thing about it is now the SAA have a justifiable excuse to blow those Turk OB posts to smithereens.
Turkey is no happy with the SAA tying up wit SDF / YPG this is the problem.
And of course the UN is doing its great job as usual, in weeding out all that do not belong in the nation. I believe the armies of Syria beyond any doubt belong, and those invited by the Syrian govt. belong, but all others including the turks are in violation and should be removed even by force if necessary,
The UN have been vigorously condemning the Turkish occupation of Syrian land ever since Assad accepted their amended version of resolution 2254, and just the other day they also vigorously condemned Israel for its continued occupation of the Golan strip, and it’s imposition of Israeli identity credentials on Syrian citizens. Assad’s been working very hard to bring the UN in on his side, it may not look like much is happening but behind the scenes Assad now has the UN practically eating out of the palm of his hand. I normally only ever criticize the UN and despise them for their US/western bias, but Assad’s managing to turn things to his favour, and now the UN is actually becoming useful in the fight against Turkey. And even though Assad still has problems with the UN over accusations of human rights abuses and CW attacks, they’re becoming less vocal about those matters and more vocal defending Syria’s territorial integrity, which effectively puts them on Assad’s side now.
they, the turks, will withdraw once the kurdish issue is settled by turkey and syria, neither of whom will accept a kurdish statelet in syria’s northeast. simple as all that.
You’re so full of shit it’s a joke, Assad’s been saying for months now that the Turks are just using the Kurds as an excuse, he’s stated they have other objectives and actually names those objectives in official statements, and on top of that SouthFront itself has published official Russian comments where the Russians say exactly the same thing, and yet you still go on about this BS story that not even the Russians believe anymore. You’re not just a paid for Turkish troll, and you’re an idiot as well, an idiot that thinks that no one else has enough brains to follow SF articles or official Russian and Syrian government statements. I’m going to get all you paid for trolls the sack, you’re all halfwits and don’t deserve to be paid for your confusing deceptive propaganda, your lies are easily exposed because you all tell such huge whoppers. The Turks invaded Idlib long before they invaded any Kurdish areas, so why did Erdogan invade Idlib if there’s hardly any Kurds living there, and why’s he still there now after all these years, if his main concern is really the Kurds. Empire is the real reason Turkey’s in Syria, and you only have to read Erdogan’s comments on the matter to realize that’s exactly what his main objective is, to make the Ottoman Empire great again, and you paid for trolls are all trying to help him do it, but not with people like me around you won’t. Go kiss Erdogan’s arse a few more times you stupid propaganda troll.
bla bla bla – no fingerspitzengefuehl in your case. work harder and try to extract the essentials from the tidings. not just rehash something your default mode has managed to put together, which is just a larf!
It’s no wonder the Turks are moving in even more equipment, the Astana agreement number 14 is helping the Turks do it, calls for the reinstatement of the old pre war Adana agreement by Putin have given the Turks the excuse they need to defy Assad’s objections. Putin’s the only reason the war in Syria isn’t over, I can’t even continue to say it’s both Erdogan and Putin’s fault anymore, especially since Putin’s the only one helping Erdogan stay in Syria now. Putin’s the one person responsible for Syria’s continued problems, no one else, even Erdogan is no longer as culpable as Putin himself is, the buck really stops with Putin now.
bla bla bla at it again and no understanding of what is happening – shame on you!
And you understand perfectly well what’s going on, since you’re a paid for Turkish troll, go on, give us some more reasons as to why you believe Turkey has a right to be on Syrian soil, despite the fact Assad wants them out. You paid for Turkish trolls sure like to give dislikes to anyone you don’t like, in 15 years of reading SF I’ve never seen so many dislikes given to negative comments about Turkey.
It is also Putin’s fault that Turkey hasn’t yet carved out large swaths of land from Syria. Of course, it is using militants to do that – and Russia creates militants to prevent it. Sad that for so many people being a mercenary is the only way to make a living.
If Putin would just stop supporting Erdogan no one would need to fight at all anymore, not the terrorists, not the mercs, or the soldiers, and then the civilians wouldn’t have to die either.
So many fake phrases in this news; SNA mans the road checkpoints, not Turkish soldiers. Turkey just gives the support. In fact there is no Turkish commando or soldier trolling in & around cities or roads. They are actually confined to their observation posts outside the urban areas. But Kurdish Kommunist Party (PKK/YPG) needs to spread fake news like Turkish army invaded Syria. Communists’ aim was not the freedom of Syrian Kurds. They were not serving Syrian Kurdish people. They aimed to make PKK stronger against Turkey. These YPG/PKK guerilla doesn’t represent Syrian Kurds at all.