Raw AFP video: Turkish vehicles, bulldozers, and military on Salwah hill overlooking Afrin on Saturday.
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – New deployments have brought the number of Turkish troops in Syria’s Idlib province up to nearly 200, constructing fortifications and observations posts overlooking the Kurdish canton of Afrin.
“Nearly 200 troops are now stationed in areas that separate territory under control of Kurdish groups and opposition groups,” a military adviser to the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), Ibrahim al-Idlibi, told Reuters.
Video footage from AFP shows Turkish vehicles and bulldozers at work on a hill overlooking Afrin near Salwah village, less than 10 kilometres from the Syria-Turkey border.
Another FSA official, Mustafa al-Sejari, told Reuters that the Turkish forces “are still in a state of advancing and expanding.”
Turkey says its operations in Idlib have two goals. One is to defeat Tahrir al-Sham, the al-Qaeda-linked group formerly known as Nusra Front that controls much of Idlib, as a precursor to setting up a de-escalation zone as was agreed with Russia and Iran in the Astana process.
The other, and apparently primary, goal is to prevent Kurdish forces from expanding their territory and possibly reaching the Mediterranean Sea.
Damascus has condemned the operation and demanded Turkey immediately withdraw its forces.
“Nearly 200 troops are now stationed in areas that separate territory under control of Kurdish groups and opposition groups,” a military adviser to the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA), Ibrahim al-Idlibi, told Reuters.
Video footage from AFP shows Turkish vehicles and bulldozers at work on a hill overlooking Afrin near Salwah village, less than 10 kilometres from the Syria-Turkey border.
Another FSA official, Mustafa al-Sejari, told Reuters that the Turkish forces “are still in a state of advancing and expanding.”
Turkey says its operations in Idlib have two goals. One is to defeat Tahrir al-Sham, the al-Qaeda-linked group formerly known as Nusra Front that controls much of Idlib, as a precursor to setting up a de-escalation zone as was agreed with Russia and Iran in the Astana process.
The other, and apparently primary, goal is to prevent Kurdish forces from expanding their territory and possibly reaching the Mediterranean Sea.
Damascus has condemned the operation and demanded Turkey immediately withdraw its forces.
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