Regime Strikes Turkish Positions in Northern Syria

Regime forces struck on Monday positions of the Turkish army and allied Syrian factions in the northern Hasakah. (AFP file photo)
Regime forces struck on Monday positions of the Turkish army and allied Syrian factions in the northern Hasakah. (AFP file photo)
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Regime Strikes Turkish Positions in Northern Syria

Regime forces struck on Monday positions of the Turkish army and allied Syrian factions in the northern Hasakah. (AFP file photo)
Regime forces struck on Monday positions of the Turkish army and allied Syrian factions in the northern Hasakah. (AFP file photo)

Regime forces struck on Monday positions of the Turkish army and allied Syrian factions in the northern Hasakah countryside that falls within the areas of Ankara’s Operation Peace Spring.

The strike took place after the Turkish forces and Syrian factions attacked a Russian fighter helicopter that had flown over the village of al-Dardara in Hasakah. The aircraft, which was flying at low altitude, managed to avoid being hit.

The attack coincided with intense missile strikes carried out by the opposition factions deployed in areas where Turkey had carried out the Operation Peace Spring against Kurdish forces.

The regime forces consequently launched missile attacks against the positions of the Turkish army and loyalist factions in al-Qasimiyah and al-Dardara and other villages in the Tal Tamr countryside.

According to a senior military source, the command of the Russian forces ordered the regime forces to carry out the attack.

This incident is the first since Turkey launched its Operation Peace Spring in October 2019.

Commander of the Tal Tamr Military Council said the countryside has witnessed frequent attacks since mid-August.

Meanwhile, Russian forces have expanded their base in the vicinity of Qamishli Airport and began constructing an airstrip for warplanes and a coordination center in the old French barracks square.



Sudan Army Says Recaptures Key State Capital

Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
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Sudan Army Says Recaptures Key State Capital

Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP
Sudanese civilians displaced by offensive south of Khartoum earlier this year dream of returning to their homes after the regular army retakes territory - AFP

The Sudanese army said Saturday it had retaken a key state capital south of Khartoum from rival Rapid Support Forces who had held it for the past five months.

The Sennar state capital of Sinja is a strategic prize in the 19-month-old war between the regular army and the RSF as it lies on a key road linking army-controlled areas of eastern and central Sudan.

It posted footage on social media that it said had been filmed inside the main base in the city.

"Sinja has returned to the embrace of the nation," the information minister of the army-backed government, Khaled al-Aiser, said in a statement.

Aiser's office said armed forces chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan had travelled to the city of Sennar, 60 kilometres (40 miles) to the north, on Saturday to "inspect the operation and celebrate the liberation of Sinja", AFP reported.

The RSF had taken the two cities in a lightning offensive in June that saw nearly 726,000 civilians flee, according to UN figures.

Human rights groups have said that those who were unwilling or unable to leave have faced months of arbitrary violence by RSF fighters.

Sinja teacher Abdullah al-Hassan spoke of his "indescribable joy" at seeing the army enter the city after "months of terror".

"At any moment, you were waiting for militia fighters to barge in and beat you or loot you," the 53-year-old told AFP by telephone.

Both sides in the Sudanese conflict have been accused of war crimes, including indiscriminately shelling homes, markets and hospitals.

The RSF has also been accused of summary executions, systematic sexual violence and rampant looting.

The RSF control nearly all of the vast western region of Darfur as well as large swathes of Kordofan in the south. They also hold much of the capital Khartoum and the key farming state of Al-Jazira to its south.

Since April 2023, the war has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted more than 11 million -- creating what the UN says is the world's largest displacement crisis.

From the eastern state of Gedaref -- where more than 1.1 million displaced people have sought refuge -- Asia Khedr, 46, said she hoped her family's ordeal might soon be at an end.

"We'll finally go home and say goodbye to this life of displacement and suffering," she told AFP.