Türkiye Begins Setting up New Military Base in Syria

A firefighter extinguishes a blaze in a field, on a hot summer day on the banks Euphrates river, near the village of Tawayhinah in Syria's northern Raqqa governorate on July 12, 2022. (AFP)

Turkish forces have started to establish a new military base in the Raqqa province northeastern Syria.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday a large number of Turkish troops were active inside their bases along the Aleppo-Latakia international highway to set up the base in an area east of the town of Ain Issa in Raqqa.

Türkiye had set up bases along the 140-km long highway, known as M4. It has established each base around 3 kms apart.

They were formed in wake of the 2019 Sochi agreement between Moscow and Ankara that ended Türkiye’s Operation Peace Spring against the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces deployed in areas east of the Euphrates.

In spite of the calm on the ground, tensions persist in the region.

On Tuesday, Turkish forces and their allied factions shelled with heavy artillery several regions held by the SDF in the Tal Tamr countryside northwest of al-Hasakeh.

Clashes ensued between the Kurdish forces and pro-Türkiye Syrian National Army.