Syria regime approaches area of Turkey military operation

Syrian regime forces are getting closer to areas where Turkish forces are embattled in a campaign to eradicated Kurdish fighters.

According to AFP, regime forces were deployed on the outskirts of the town of Tell Tamr, located south of the border town of Ras Al-Ain, where fighting between Kurdish and Turkish forces is taking place.

The regime’s news agency confirmed that “units of the Syrian army have entered the town of Tell Tamr, located about 30 kilometres from Ras Al-Ain.”

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights pointed out that some army units approached about six kilometres from the Turkish border.

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On Wednesday, Turkey and pro-Syrian factions initiated an offensive against the Kurdish forces that they regard as “terrorists”.

The aim of the military operation initiated by Ankara, which forcibly displaced 130,000 people, according to the United Nations, is to establish a buffer zone 32 kilometres deep into Syria in order to relocate a large part of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees currently residing in Turkey.

The Kurdish self-administration announced on Sunday that it had reached an agreement with the Syrian regime, at the Russian base of Hmeimim, to deploy government forces along the border with Turkey to counter the ongoing attack against the area.

The Kurds did not clarify the details of the agreement, and whether they made concessions to Damascus. However as part of the agreement foreign journalists were evacuated from the area.

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