US Monitor: Syria prepares to confront Turkish occupation
Syrian Kurds are seeking support amid Turkish threats of a new military operation and further occupation of Syrian territory. The official Syrian Arab News Agency reported that the Syrian government deployed heavy reinforcements in the cities of Ain Issa in northern Raqqa province, Manbij and Ayn al-Arab in “Kobanî” in eastern Aleppo province.
Syrian equipment
Monitor, an American website, confirmed that Syria is preparing to confront Turkish attacks. Syrian government military reinforcements recently arrived in the outskirts of Manbij as part of a plan to close all battlefronts to confront any “aggression” on Tall Rifaat and Manbij.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Syrian government forces have reinforced their presence in areas under Kurdish control, including Ain Issa, while media sources inside Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF)-controlled areas in northern Syria said: The Syrian government has deployed heavily in Tal Abyad, north of Racca, in Ein al-Arab and Manbij, and in the eastern Aleppo countryside, according to sources. These deployments include dozens of military vehicles and armored vehicles, including tanks, heavy artillery, and more than 400 Syrian soldiers.
Coordination and cooperation
According to the US website, Syrian regime forces have erected military barriers on the lines of contact with extremist militias supported by Turkey. Officers from the regime and Kurdish forces hold regular meetings to discuss military coordination and defense plans in the event Turkey and its allies launch a military operation in the areas of Kobanî, Manbij and Ain Issa, he said. “Regime forces have erected concrete blocks in the village of al-Zaibat and on the outskirts of the village of Buzkik, north of Manbij, and SDF has raised regime flags over military buildings in the city of Manbij,” it said.
The sources confirmed that talks between the SDF and the Syrian government forces are underway to establish a joint operations command center based in the city of Manbij northeast of Aleppo. Meanwhile, a Kurdish leader who asked not to be named said: “We have agreed with the Syrian regime that its forces will be deployed in several areas under our control, and more troops will be sent in the coming days, some of which are now stationed at several military sites in the countryside of Racca and Aleppo. There is also an understanding with the Syrian regime at several points, although some points are still pending regarding self-administration, and our military coordination with the regime is expected to develop”.
Green light
Commenting on these concerns, Zin al-Abidine al-Okaidi, a journalist based in northeast Syria, said: “The regime has an undeclared objective of deploying to areas controlled by the SDF, and it wants to infiltrate them and gain more influence there”.
He continued: “I don’t think the decision to launch Turkish military action is easy or in Turkey’s hands, and it requires the consensus of the international actors, the Russians, the Americans, and the Iranians, at the moment, all against it, but Turkish threats will not stop in the future unless the last Kurdish militant is removed from Turkey’s southern border”.
”The issue will be resolved diplomatically and there will be no Turkish action without a US-Russian green light”, al-Okaidi said. “The Russians have made great efforts to bring Assad and the SDF closer together, and the deployment of regime forces is a result of the Russians’ work”.
