Turkey Continues its Drone War in Northern Syria

A checkpoint for the Syrian National Army loyal to Turkey in northwestern Syria (AFP)
A checkpoint for the Syrian National Army loyal to Turkey in northwestern Syria (AFP)
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Turkey Continues its Drone War in Northern Syria

A checkpoint for the Syrian National Army loyal to Turkey in northwestern Syria (AFP)
A checkpoint for the Syrian National Army loyal to Turkey in northwestern Syria (AFP)

A Tal Tamr Military Council member of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) was killed by a Turkish drone strike in Tal Jumaa on Thursday.

The areas east of the Euphrates witnessed an increase in Turkish drone attacks, which killed leaders and prominent fighters of the People’s Defense Units.

The new development comes after the Tehran summit between the presidents of Russia, Vladimir Putin, Iran’s Ebrahim Raisi, and Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Observers believe that Turkey is following a new strategy to weaken the SDF after failing to secure international support that would allow it to carry out a military operation in northern Syria.

They considered that the Turkish escalation came after the Tehran summit, where Turkey may have obtained a green light from Russia and Iran to weaken the SDF by targeting its leaders instead of launching the military operation aimed at establishing safe areas 30 kilometers inside Syrian territory south of the Turkish border.

On July 24, Turkey announced the killing of the commander of military operations in Ain al-Arab, and a week later, the intelligence announced the death of Arhan Arman, a member of the Executive Council in Ain al-Arab.

Meanwhile, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) said the Turkish armed drones killed at least ten SDF fighters, including prominent leaders.

The Observatory recounted 43 Turkish drone attacks in the areas under the control of the Autonomous Administration of North and Northeastern Syria.

Since the beginning of the year, 35 soldiers and one civilian were killed and 80 others injured.

The Turkish forces and the Syrian National Army (SNA) factions bombed the SDF locations in al-Hasakah, where several artillery shells fell on Tawila village in Tal Tamr.

The Turkish Ministry of Defense said in a statement Thursday that it eliminated two SDF members who were preparing to launch an attack on the Spring of Peace area, which is controlled by Ankara and its loyal factions in northeastern Syria.

The statement said that the Turkish army continues its pre-emptive operations against terrorists in northern Syria.

Syrian regime forces directly targeted a vehicle of the Turkish troops on the Efes axis in the eastern countryside of Idlib. They shelled the vicinity of Maklabis village in the western countryside of Aleppo, coinciding with the flyover of a Russian warplane in the de-escalation zone in northwestern Syria.



Lebanon’s Jumblatt Visits Syria, Hoping for a Post-Assad Reset in Troubled Relations

Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
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Lebanon’s Jumblatt Visits Syria, Hoping for a Post-Assad Reset in Troubled Relations

Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)
Walid Jumblatt (C), the Druze former leader of Lebanon's Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), and his son and current party head Taymur Jumblatt (C-L) meet with Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa (R) and interim prime minister Mohammad al-Bashir (L) during a visit to Damascus on December 22, 2024. (AFP)

Former head of Lebanon’s Progressive Socialist Party (PSP), Druze leader Walid Jumblatt held talks on Sunday with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, whose group led the overthrow of Syria's President Bashar Assad, with both expressing hope for a new era in relations between their countries.

Jumblatt was a longtime critic of Syria's involvement in Lebanon and blamed Assad's father, former President Hafez Assad, for the assassination of his own father decades ago. He is the most prominent Lebanese politician to visit Syria since the Assad family's 54-year rule came to an end.

“We salute the Syrian people for their great victories and we salute you for your battle that you waged to get rid of oppression and tyranny that lasted over 50 years,” said Jumblatt.

He expressed hope that Lebanese-Syrian relations “will return to normal.”

Jumblatt's father, Kamal, was killed in 1977 in an ambush near a Syrian roadblock during Syria's military intervention in Lebanon's civil war. The younger Jumblatt was a critic of the Assads, though he briefly allied with them at one point to gain influence in Lebanon's ever-shifting political alignments.

“Syria was a source of concern and disturbance, and its interference in Lebanese affairs was negative,” al-Sharaa said, referring to the Assad government. “Syria will no longer be a case of negative interference in Lebanon," he said, pledging that it would respect Lebanese sovereignty.

Al-Sharaa also repeated longstanding allegations that Assad's government was behind the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which was followed by other killings of prominent Lebanese critics of Assad.

Last year, the United Nations closed an international tribunal investigating the assassination after it convicted three members of Lebanon's Hezbollah — an ally of Assad — in absentia. Hezbollah denied involvement in the massive Feb. 14, 2005 bombing, which killed Hariri and 21 others.

“We hope that all those who committed crimes against the Lebanese will be held accountable, and that fair trials will be held for those who committed crimes against the Syrian people,” Jumblatt said.