Turkey has assisted more armed fighters to enter Syria through its borders and aided their travel to areas north of Aleppo, says the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR). “At least 500 rebels have crossed the Bab al-Salam border crossing on their way to the town of Azaz, from which they want to help the insurgents in the face of gains made by Kurdish forces in the north of the province,” Rami Abdel, head of the SOHR, told Agence France-Presse. “Trusted sources confirmed to the observatory that the fighters’ moving was under the supervision of the Turkish authorities,” SOHR said in a published statement on their website. These 500 fighters are in addition to approximately 350 fighters that crossed into Syria from Turkey earlier this week. They were armed with light and heavy weapons and entered Syria through the Atamah military border crossing with the assistance of Turkish authorities. Turkey has also continued its cross-border shelling of areas in Syria that are under control of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a coalition group which includes the Syrian Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG). The SOHR reports that the Turkish military today shelled areas around Tal Rifaat, Menagh, and elsewhere in the countryside surrounding Azaz, north of Aleppo. The SOHR does not yet have any reports of casualties from today’s shelling but they report that four people were shot at the Syrian-Turkish border. Three of the four were Palestinian women. Kurdish forces have recently made territorial gains in the countryside north of Aleppo, an area they accuse Turkey of using as a supply line to extremist rebels. Turkey is a key supporter of the Free Syrian Army, a Western-backed military group opposed to President Bashir that aims to be a moderate alternative to the many Islamist militant groups fighting in the country.
