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Turkish Forces Pull out of Bases in Syria’s North

Two fighters in a Turkish-backed faction seen at a military position on the outskirts of the town of Kaljibrin in northern Syria. (AFP)
Two fighters in a Turkish-backed faction seen at a military position on the outskirts of the town of Kaljibrin in northern Syria. (AFP)
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Turkish Forces Pull out of Bases in Syria’s North

Two fighters in a Turkish-backed faction seen at a military position on the outskirts of the town of Kaljibrin in northern Syria. (AFP)
Two fighters in a Turkish-backed faction seen at a military position on the outskirts of the town of Kaljibrin in northern Syria. (AFP)

Turkish forces evacuated two bases in the western countryside of Tal Abyad, in the northern countryside of Raqqa, northern Syria, sources revealed.

The forces withdrew from their military bases in the villages of Hareqli and Tannuz.

The withdrawal, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is a UK-based war monitor, was coordinated with Russian forces in the area.

The withdrawal will likely be followed by Russian and regime advances in Tal Abyad in an unspoken agreement between Moscow and Ankara.

Meanwhile, in a sign that Ankara may not have completely abandoned its plans to launch a cross-border military operation against Kurdish forces, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan affirmed his country's determination to connect safe zones in northern Syria soon.

Last May, Turkey announced that it would pursue a full-scale military campaign in northern Syria to complete the establishment of safe zones near its borders. The said zones would extend 30 kilometers deep in Syrian territory.

On Monday, Erdogan threatened to clear northeast Syria from Kurdish-led forces amid an increase in drone attacks and shelling in northeast Syria.

“We will continue our fight against terrorism. Our decision to establish a 30-kilometre-deep secure line along our southern border is permanent,” he told the 13th Ambassadors Conference in Ankara.

“I hope we will join the parts of this security zone together soon by clearing the last areas where the terrorist organization is nesting in Syria,” added Erdogan in reference to the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG).

Despite Erdogan’s loud rhetoric, Turkey’s plans for a military campaign in Syria remains without international support.

The US, which considers the Kurds a key ally in the war against ISIS in Syria, has warned against any Turkish military move, saying that it would pose a threat to the forces participating in the war against the terror group.

European countries also rejected any new Turkish incursion.

For its part, Russia demanded that Ankara cooperate with Damascus instead of resorting to a military option.

Iran, another backer of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Damascus, declared that any Turkish operation would play out in the interests of terrorists only, and would destabilize the region.

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Arab World

Sudan Army Chief Visits HQ after Recapture from Paramilitaries

People cheer Sudan's de facto leader, armed forces chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, at the market in Port Sudan on December 29, 2024. AFP/File
People cheer Sudan's de facto leader, armed forces chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, at the market in Port Sudan on December 29, 2024. AFP/File
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Sudan Army Chief Visits HQ after Recapture from Paramilitaries

People cheer Sudan's de facto leader, armed forces chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, at the market in Port Sudan on December 29, 2024. AFP/File
People cheer Sudan's de facto leader, armed forces chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, at the market in Port Sudan on December 29, 2024. AFP/File

Sudan's army chief visited on Sunday his headquarters in the capital Khartoum, two days after forces recaptured the complex, which paramilitaries had encircled since the war erupted in April 2023.

"Our forces are in their best condition," Abdel Fattah al-Burhan told army commanders at the headquarters close to the city center and airport.

The army's recapture of the General Command of the Armed Forces is its biggest victory in the capital since reclaiming Omdurman, Khartoum's twin city on the Nile's west bank, nearly a year ago.

In a statement on Friday, the army said it had merged troops stationed in Khartoum North (Bahri) and Omdurman with forces at the headquarters, breaking the siege of both the Signal Corps in Khartoum North and the General Command, just south across the Nile River, reported AFP.

Since the early days of the war, when the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) quickly spread through Khartoum, the military had to supply its troops inside the headquarters via airdrops.

Burhan was himself trapped inside for four months before emerging in August 2023 and fleeing to the coastal city of Port Sudan.

The recapture of the headquarters follows other gains for the army.

Earlier this month, troops regained control of Wad Madani, just south of Khartoum, securing a key crossroads between the capital and surrounding states.

'Disregard for human life'

With the army gaining ground in central Sudan, the RSF has set its sights on consolidating its hold on Darfur, where it controls every state capital except El-Fasher.

Despite besieging it since May, the paramilitary has not managed to wrest control of the city from the army and its allied militias.

Days after it issued an ultimatum demanding army forces and their allies leave the North Darfur state capital, an attack on the city's Saudi Hospital on Friday killed 70 people and injured dozens, the United Nations said on Sunday.

"The attack, reportedly carried out by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on the only functional hospital in El-Fasher, is a shocking violation of international humanitarian law," the UN's resident and humanitarian coordinator in Sudan, Clementine Nkweta-Salami, said Sunday.

"The alarming disregard for human life is unacceptable," said the UN's most senior official in Sudan.

The RSF on Sunday accused the army and its allies of striking the hospital.

The late Friday drone strike destroyed the hospital's emergency building, a medical source told AFP.

World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X the "appalling" attack took place while "the hospital was packed with patients receiving care".

Both sides have been accused of targeting civilians and indiscriminately shelling residential areas, with the RSF specifically accused of ethnic cleansing, systematic sexual violence and laying siege to entire towns.

The United States announced sanctions this month against RSF leader Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, accusing his group of committing genocide.

A week later, it also imposed sanctions against Burhan, accusing the army of attacking schools, markets and hospitals, as well as using food deprivation as a weapon of war.

'The best medicine is peace'

The war in Sudan has unleashed a humanitarian disaster of epic proportions.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and, according to the United Nations, more than 12 million uprooted.

Famine has been declared in parts of Sudan but the risk is spreading for millions more people, a UN-backed assessment said last month.

Particularly in the country's western Darfur region and in Kordofan in the south, families have been forced to eat grass, animal fodder and peanut shells to survive.

"Above all, Sudan's people need peace. The best medicine is peace," Ghebreyesus said.

During Sunday prayers in Rome, Pope Francis lamented how the country has become the site of "the most serious humanitarian crisis in the world".

He called on both sides to end the fighting and urged the international community to "help the belligerents find paths to peace soon".