The Turkish Defense Ministry announced that its forces took control of the M4 highway with a depth of 30 to 35 kilometers inside Syrian territory
The Turkish Defense Ministry announced that its forces took control of the M4 highway with a depth of 30 to 35 kilometers inside Syrian territory, following its takeover of the city of Tall Abyad in northeastern Syria.
The M4 road is located south of the area between the town of Ras al-Ain and the city of Tall Abyad in northeastern Syria, where for the fifth day witnessed battles in an operation called by the Turkish forces “spring of peace.” This international road connects al-Hasakah province (east) to the governorates of Raqqa and Aleppo, and to the province of Latakia in the west, and connects several cities located in areas controlled by the YPG, which will make the control of Turkish forces on this road difficult to move between areas of their control.
In the axis of “Ras al-Ain”, the Syrian opposition forces backed by the Turkish army took control of four villages west of Ras al-Ain city north of al-Hasakah, in addition to the town of behavior north of the province of Raqqa.
While there are conflicting reports about the control of the Syrian National Army forces backed by Turkish forces on that city, Al-Jazeera correspondent Amr Halabi said that there are occasional clashes in the surrounding area, and that this conflict may be due to the nature of the fighting that is witnessing operations of fleeing, and that the army forces and the opposition Combing operations inside and around the city to expel the SDF.
He added that the incursion of the opposition forces so far reached a depth of 12 km inside Syrian territory, which enabled them to control a number of important roads, and access to the road linking Tel Abyad and Ras al-Ain.
The death toll on the Kurdish side, according to the Turkish Defense Ministry, has risen to 480 since the launch of Operation “Spring of Peace” last Wednesday.
Turkey on Wednesday launched a military operation against the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), which Ankara considers “terrorist”. Turkey says the operation aims to prevent the establishment of a “terrorist corridor” in the south of the country and to provide a safe area for the return of millions of refugees.
Displacement and flight On the humanitarian side, the United Nations announced on Sunday that the Turkish military operation in northern Syria forced 130 thousand people to flee their homes, noting that it expects this number to rise more than three times.
“We have moved to the scenario of preparing for the displacement of nearly 400,000 people internally across the affected areas” of the Turkish operation, UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) spokesperson Jens Larkey said in an e-mail.
Many of the displaced have settled with relatives or host communities, but increasing numbers are reaching collective shelters, including schools.
source: international agencies