Turkish Army Dispatches Reinforcement to Eastern Euphrates

Syrians are seen on the rubble of a destroyed building that covers a street after Assad regime airstrikes in the town of Ariha, in Idlib province, Syria, January 30. /AP Photo
Syrians are seen on the rubble of a destroyed building that covers a street after Assad regime airstrikes in the town of Ariha, in Idlib province, Syria, January 30. /AP Photo
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Turkish Army Dispatches Reinforcement to Eastern Euphrates

Syrians are seen on the rubble of a destroyed building that covers a street after Assad regime airstrikes in the town of Ariha, in Idlib province, Syria, January 30. /AP Photo
Syrians are seen on the rubble of a destroyed building that covers a street after Assad regime airstrikes in the town of Ariha, in Idlib province, Syria, January 30. /AP Photo

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported sources as saying that Turkish military reinforcement were crossing into areas under the control of “Peace Spring” factions.

A convoy of 30 Turkish military vehicles entered the city coming from a checkpoint in Adwaniya, carrying logistic and military gears, according to the sources.

This is the first time that military reinforcements are dispatched to the region since halting the operation on October 17.

Earlier last week, the Turkish Defense Ministry announced taking strict procedures in areas under its controlled or the control of its loyal factions in the East of Euphrates to ban the sneaking of members from People's Protection Units.

Turkish forces are still sending families of Turkish-backed fighters to the areas of “Peace Spring”, as part of Turkey’s demographic change in the region.

On May 6, SOHR sources said that eight buses arrived in Ras al-Ain city in rural Al-Hasakeh, carrying families from north Aleppo countryside, in addition to a bus transporting armed militiamen of Turkish-backed factions. The Turkish intelligence facilitated the passage of these buses.

On April 21, SOHR activists also reported that a convoy of nearly 150 vehicles carrying displaced families from Al-Ghouta, Homs, and Idlib arrived in Tal Abyad city, north of Raqqa. The vehicles carried over 500 people of Turkish-backed fighters’ families from the city of Jarabulus, north of Aleppo.

Meanwhile, Turkish forces and forces of loyal factions targeted Al-Arida village by heavy ammunition. There were no details about causalities.



US-led Forces Kill Senior ISIS Leader in Syria

 US forces vehicles and structures are seen on the outskirts of the northern Syrian town of Manbij on December 26, 2018. (AFP)
US forces vehicles and structures are seen on the outskirts of the northern Syrian town of Manbij on December 26, 2018. (AFP)
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US-led Forces Kill Senior ISIS Leader in Syria

 US forces vehicles and structures are seen on the outskirts of the northern Syrian town of Manbij on December 26, 2018. (AFP)
US forces vehicles and structures are seen on the outskirts of the northern Syrian town of Manbij on December 26, 2018. (AFP)

A raid by US-led forces in northwestern Syria on Friday killed a senior leader in the ISIS group, the US military said Friday.

The US Central Command said in a statement that it had killed ISIS leader Dhiya Zawba Muslih al-Hardan and his two adult sons, who were also affiliated with the group, early Friday in a raid in the town of al-Bab, in Syria’s Aleppo province.

It said the men “posed a threat to US and Coalition Forces, as well as the new Syrian Government,” adding that three women and three children at the site were not harmed.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, said the raid was carried out through an airdrop of forces, the first of its kind to be carried out by the US-led coalition against ISIS this year, and that ground forces from both the Syrian government’s General Security forces and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces participated.

The observatory said the operation was “preceded by a tight security cordon around the targeted site, a heavy deployment of forces on the ground, and the presence of coalition helicopters in the airspace of the area.”

There was no statement from either the government in Damascus or the SDF about the operation.

Washington has developed increasingly close ties with the new Syrian government in Damascus since the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad in a lightning opposition offensive last year, and has been pushing for a merger of forces between the new Syrian army and the Kurdish-led SDF, which controls much of the country’s northeast.

However, progress between the two sides in agreeing on the details of the merger has been slow and could be further complicated by the recent outbreak of sectarian violence in the southern province of Sweida, in which government forces joined Bedouin clans in fighting against armed factions from the Druze religious minority.